Son of the Sun
by acw28
Summary: Many assume that Amaterasu was asleep while waiting to be summoned into the world, but what if the goddess was awake, what if she grew bored and explored a different world, what if she had a son? AU of the Naruto and Okami universes.
1. The beginning

**Edit 2/3/2015 - Fixed a typo**

**Hello everyone, it's acw28 here welcoming you to my new story.**

**So before I begin, I got to give a little back story. So, this is one of stories that has been in my head for a while. After I saw the Okami crossovers and then read a story where Kyubi was actually Naruto's mom, I got the inspiration for a story where Ammy was Naruto's mom, but I didn't really develop it. A little while later, I read a story that actually had this idea! Now don't worry, I'm not copying anyone's work, from what I remember about the story the author used a lot of original ideas while I'm here to blend and put my own spin on the elements of Okami, Okamiden, and Naruto. However, if anyone could tell me the title and the author of the fic I mentioned, please tell me so that I can give credit where credit is due.**

**Yeah, so now that that's out of the way, let's get on with the show.**

**Disclaimer: Okami was one of the best games on the PlayStation 2, Okamiden was a great game on the Nintendo DS, and Naruto was a great manga/anime. I own copies of the first two, but I don't own the rights to any, they belong to their respective owners.**

* * *

On the Celestial Plain looking down upon the land of Nippon, a white wolf with red markings and a spinning disk on her back watched over the residents of Kamiki village, where Susano defeated and drove back some minor green imps. This confused the wolf, who in reality was the sun goddess Amaterasu. She had defeated Yami and had purged the lands of evil. So then why, she asked herself, did the imps and other creatures stay?

Shaking her head, the wolf goddess let her mind wonder over the events of her adventure. Of how she regained all of the brush powers, of defeated the likes of the Spider Queen, Crimson Helm, and Orchi. When she remembered her battle against the Ninetails, she also remembered some events that happened long before her great quest.

What many assumed was that she was the reincarnation of Shiranui, but this was false. Shiranui was actually her father. She remembered how when she was young she watched her dad leave their home. She found out he'd died saving a human's life a few days later from her caretaker. It was for that reason that she was both shocked and happy when she fought alongside him, and became heartbroken when he willingly returned to the past despite his wounds, saying that he was proud of her. Imagine her surprised when while she and Waka were clearing the demons on the Celestial Plain that she found her father resting in a cave. Sure, he had lost much of his power after reforming, but he was alive and that is what was important. After the two wolves were reunited, Amaterasu often visited her father. As happy as she was, her memories were focused on what happened in her life in the time between her father's "death" and when she was summoned by Sakuya.

After over half a century of inactivity, Amaterasu grew bored and decided to take a small break. Sending her soul to what she believed to be another world, she found a pregnant redhead women, but noticed a problem. As one of the Kami of life, Amaterasu could sense that the child the woman carried was soon to pass. The wolf goddess knew that the woman would be extremely saddened by this and made a snap decision. Acting quickly, the goddess saw to it that the child's soul would go to the afterlife, will she rushed in to take it's place. Sometime later she was born in this new body and given a name, Kushina.

For 24 years she had livid in that world. In that time she had enjoyed her childhood, then entrusted to protect the world by acting as a jailor for an ancient evil nine-tailed fox. She rose to the challenge, joining the world's ninja system to help others, advancing to the ANBU division. She even fell in love, with a boy who she first thought to be rather girly, Minato Namikaze. She was even going to have a kid with this man.

This all changed in the space of one night. Right after she had given birth to her son, a masked man had abducted her and released the Kyubi. Shortly afterwards Minato had battled and defeated this villain and returned her to her son's side. She didn't know how long she stayed there, just thankful to have some peace in her final moments. Then Minato came back, heavily injured, he teleported both her and her son to where he had the fox trapped. With a heavy heart he explained how he needed to seal the fox in Naruto to save the village. Kushina, as she thought of herself being use to the name, heavily objected to this, not wanting her son to have an unhappy future. Being the diplomat that he was, Minato was able to convince her of his plan, citing how their son would be a hero, he would have the previous Hokage, their friends, and their students to look after him, and how it would be like when she had the fox, no one would know of what he contained. The straw that broke Kushina's resolve was when Minato explained how he would seal a part of their souls as well, so that their son could at least meet them.

This was not to be. Minato had just completed the ritual to seal away the fox but had yet to seal both of seal their souls when the Kyubi landed one last blow, ripping Minato's heart out and disrupting the ritual. Seeing this, Kushina screamed out in sadness and in rage, then saw darkness as her body expired from having the demon forced out of her. When she opened her eyes again, she was greeted by two white paws. Knowing she was once more in her original body, Amaterasu gave a long howl for the loss of the love of her immortal life and for having to leave her child behind.

Returning back to the present, the Sun goddess suddenly felt tired. As she laid her head back down for another nap, she had one last thought of the past, 'I wonder how my little maelstrom is doing.'

* * *

Looking over the Land of Waves from the cliff top, Naruto strangely felt at peace. It had been a few days since the battle on the bridge. Even though he had arrived late, Naruto was finally given a chance to show how much he had grown since he entered the academy. In the course of the fight, him and Sasuke had gotten trapped within the jutsu of the fake hunter-nin. While the duo was surrounded in the dome of ice mirrors, they had been constantly assaulted by the imposter with senbon needles. During the fight, Sasuke had awoken his sharingan, but that did little to stop the enemies attacks. When Naruto saw that the next attack would be fatal, he quickly pushed the Uchiha to the ground. The impact may have knocked him out, but it saved Sasuke's life.

Seeing how the life of the person he believed to be his friend was almost cut short, Naruto became enraged and tapped into a power he had felt once before. With strength that even surprised him, he punched straight through one of the ice mirriors, ejecting the false hunter-nin as well. It was then that Naruto discovered a horrible truth, his opponent was the boy from yesterday that he had befriended, Haku. After a brief talk and explanation as to why he served Zabuza, Naruto moved to knock the ice-user out, only for the boy to stop the attack and summon another ice mirrior. When the mist cleared, Naruto saw why as his friend had intercepted an attack to save the life of his master.

Once Gato had come and showed his true colors, Naruto was able to tell, well more like yell, how much the Zabuza had meant to Haku, convincing the man to leave life having done one good deed. Using a borrowed kunai, the man charged Gato's private army, taking an uncountable number of strikes but giving as good as he got. In the end, the man finished his massacre with the corrupt businessman, his body giving out soon after he made his last request to be buried next to the boy who had so faithfully served him in life.

And so here Naruto stood, in front of the graves he, his sensei, and the townsfolk had dug last week. Reflecting over what Haku said, Naruto decided that he would also do his best to protect those precious to him so that he would not have to lose another friend. Looking over the Land of Waves, the boy also thought of what the future would hold for the tiny village. He could see the bridge from here, there was perhaps a half a week of work left before it connected to the mainland. Soon after that tiny villages economy would boom with new merchandise become available for cheaper prices and more capital coming in from visitors from other nations. The bridge would soon pay for itself, the newly constructed space could be rented out to travelling merchants to sell their wares. Smiling, the boy went back to practicing the tree walking excursive.

* * *

Sasuke Uchiha was pissed. He was currently walking in what could be considered the down town of this small village. The topic of every conversation he heard was about that blond idiot of a teammate of his. All he heard was, "That Naruto kid must be something else.", "He must be the strongest shinobi of his generation.", "He single handedly saved this village and inspired us." It wasn't fair, he was the last Uchiha, he should be the one getting this praise, not the dead last. If that idiot had not shoveled him causing him to get knocked out he would have beat that hunter-nin wannabe and then killed the missing-nin himself. It wasn't just the praise that should be his, the dead last also occupied his sensei's time, time that could be spent making sure he, the last loyal Uchiha, got stronger than everyone else.

Looking up, Sasuke noted that he had wondered in front of the villages new deliver office. He suddenly remembered what that old creep Danzo had said, "If your teammates cause you any trouble, just let me know." Sasuke smirked as he walked in the building and was asked how he could be helped. The genin only asked, "How fast could you get a message to Konoha?"

* * *

Naruto waved to the gathered villagers as he and Team Seven left the Land of Waves. Besides the occasional bandit that used to be part of Gato's payroll, the past week had been rather easy. Walking away, it seemed like everyone was in a good mood, the people of Waves would soon get back on their feet once they found Gato's hide out and reclaimed their money, Kakashi was once more left in peace to read his Icha Icha, Sakura was happy "her" Sasuke was fully healed, and Naruto was happy to have helped so many people. Even Sasuke had a smile, but Naruto didn't know why.

Despite the fact that he was walking away from so many people praising him and back to the half concealed glares, Naruto was excited to get back to Konoha. While he may not have always been treated that great, it was still his home. He couldn't wait to tell Old Man Hokage and the Ichirakus about how awesome he did during the mission. He was unaware that to his right Sasuke had a different reason for being excited to get home.

'Just you wait dead last, you'll be in for a surprise when we get home.'

* * *

The Hokage's Office

Hiruzen Sarutobi was doing his duty as the Third Hokage, namely protecting his shinobi and villagers from the menace known as paperwork. He was perplexed as to the amount he had to fill out everyday, he knew that his sensei didn't have to fill out mission payment forms in triplicate, and he didn't remember having to sign off on so many civilian exclusive issues, such as the standard degree a cup of coffee must be served at. In his mind, the aged man had come to two conclusions, either his successor had instituted these changes so he could have better oversight of the village (if that was the case how did he stay up to date with all of the paper work?) or someone was trying to keep him in his office and away from people as long as possible.

These thoughts were put to a stop when two of his old teammates and current advisors walked into his office. Homura Mitokado was a grey haired beard man who wore green glasses, a dark blue robe, a yellow jacket and a white scarf. Koharu Utatane was a woman whose hair had also turned grey with time, although she preferred to keep it pinned up. The woman also had some colored pearl earrings and wore a grey kimono and a green jacket. Both took a seat in front of the desk with Koharu saying, "We have a problem."

"If it is the amount of daily paperwork I must do I am already aware of it. Really why must I fill out the same form three separate times?"

Bothe advisors looked stunned by the Hokage's statement. "Hiruzen," Koharu began, "we don't mean to tell you how to do your job, it was obvious since the beginning that Tobirmara-sensei was grooming you to take over the position, but you only need to fill out one copy of any form to submit to the records. It has always been this way, Minato actually made the process more efficient, though we don't know how."

"So you mean to tell me," Hiruzen began, "that I have spent the past twelve years doing two-thirds more work then I needed to?"

"It would appear so," Homura said before he asked, "why would you even do it that way, don't you remember the system from when you where in office the first time?"

"It was how it was presented to my when I took office again and I didn't question it, I had more important things to worry about. One thing is for sure, at the next council meeting I'm announcing a paperwork reform. Was there anything else you two needed from me?"

In reply, Koharu pulled out a sheet of paper, "We were able to intercept this before it went to one of Danzo's puppets on the civilian side." The Hokage quickly looked over the paper before saying, "None of this could be true, all three of us know that Naruto would never do any of these things."

"We know that, but the civilians only see the fox." was Homura's reply, "They will believe every word of what is said, that Naruto willingly endangered Sasuke's life during a confrontation with the enemy and helped inflict damage upon him by using the Uchiha as a human shield."

"Where would Danzo even get the information to make these claims, Team Seven is currently on a C-ranked escort mission."

"We had a few of our agents within Root look through Danzo's messages. It would appear that the mission was more dangerous as the client withheld some crucial information, namely Gato of Gato shipping put a hit out on him." Homura began.

Koharu continued, "It is true that there was multiple confrontations with enemy shinobi, and that Sasuke had been injured. It was after the fact that Sasuke was able to send word to Danzo of the encounter, giving him enough information to craft a story to place the blame on young Uzumaki."

"Why must Danzo continue to be an issue I have to deal with almost daily?" Hiruzen questioned himself. However, Koharu decided to answer, "We all know why, he wants your title for himself. The man has continued to discreetly defy your orders since you took back the hat. We don't have the proof, but we know that he was the one who leaked Naruto's status to the rest of the villagers who saw an opportunity to take revenge against what the Kyubi had done. We know that he was the one who forced Itachi's hand, admittedly once negotiations between us and the Uchiha had broken down we were in favor of assassinating those leading the coup, but Danzo forced Itachi to kill the innocent ones as well."

"And it seemed that he has continued to play the situation to his advantage," Homura continued, "He helped elevate Sasuke's status in the village and, if this message is anything to go by, has offered to help take care of any problems the Uchiha brat encounters."

"This is indeed troubling," Hiruzen began, "it seems that we have ignored Danzo too much recently. We will have to watch him closer and wait for him to slip up. While we wait, we need to solve our current problem first. These accusations could end Naruto's shinobi career, even if they don't they will leave the boy without any financial resources just defending himself."

The three elders where silent for a few minutes while think of a way to save the career of a young man. During this time, Koharu once more looked over Danzo's prepared speech and found the solution.

"Here it is," she declared, "Danzo is going to state that Naruto could not be trusted to be around the Uchiha again. Including himself Danzo only has three guaranteed votes on the civilian side. We are lucky in the fact that most of the civilians that were elected generally follow what the shinobi side want. The only way for Danzo to ensure his vote passes would be to appeal to the Uchiha worshipers. If we switch Naruto or Sasuke to a different squad then the rest of the civilians will be satisfied."

"That could work," Homura said, "but on what basis could we justify switching Naruto with a genin from a different squad? We can't switch Sasuke, the message said he awoke the sharingan so we have to keep Kakashi as his sensei."

Hiruzen gained a thoughtful expression before calling to his secretary, "Could you please bring me all of the assignments and tests that genin Uzumaki completed during his time at the academy?"

Over the next hour and a half, the Hokage and his advisors looked over the school work.

"This is terrible," Koharu stated, "some of his sensei's overrode the scantron and marked correct answers as wrong."

"I have worse," Homura countered, "this is his written test from his first attempt at the genin test, it seems he actually knew enough to pass even without the clone jutsu, his examiner erased almost every single answer, giving him a score of 5."

All of a sudden, the advisors felt a great amount of killer intent radiate from the Hokage. "This is absolutely unacceptable!" the leader yelled, "This is a five page essay the boy wrote on application of the academy to real life scenarios. He states how flawed some of the classes are and how to improve them, we might actually want to take these suggestions. He also didn't just limit himself to the curriculum, he notes how sneaking out of class and pranking has helped him develop his stealth and trap making skills. The grader only gave him a 3 percent, saying his comments were unneeded, that he did not answer the question, and that the academy is perfect the way it is."

After both elders read the essay, Homura asked, "Who graded this? Obviously they are going to be fired."

Koharu laughed and said, "Don't worry about firing the idiot Homura, Mizuki was the one who wrote these comments."

Sighing, Hiruzen stated, "It seems that every instructor except Iruka willingly underscored Naruto. I wonder where he would be placed if they did not have any bias."

"Based on what I have seen," Homura stated, "the boy is actually quite intelligent, being in the upper 5 percent of his class."

An idea struck the Hokage as he asked, "If we were to account for Naruto's movement in class ranking, who would have been the dead last?"

Looking over the class roaster and genin teams, Homura said, "Some no name civilian who failed his true test. I see where you're going with this though, so how could we justify swapping out Naruto with someone in Squad Eight? We can't use Squad Nine as they are a year his senior and Squad Ten is this generation's Ino-Shika-Cho trio."

"Well," Koharu began, "Kurenai requested her genin so that she could make a tracking squad. While an intriguing idea, this overspecialization leads the team vulnerable to front line units. Giving the team a heavy hitter like Naruto would remedy this problem, he could also create a trap for a target the team had identified."

"This is all true, but we still have one problem." Hiruzen said. "It has been over a month since the genin graduation. Kurenai will not like the fact that we are messing with her team and may accuse us of showing favoritism to Naruto."

"Except," Koharu countered, "Naruto was suppose to be on Kurenai's squad since the beginning. After the jonin left you realized the problem and quickly corrected the teams with Kakashi the only jonin sensei who knew since he arrived late. You entrusted us to give the corrected list to Iruka, but we mistakenly gave him the wrong list."

Smiling, Hiruzen said, "This plan just might work."

* * *

Team Seven had made it back to the village faster than they had when they left it as they didn't have to travel at civilian speed. Each member was glad to be back for a different reason. Kakashi wanted to buy the new Icha Icha that came out while he was on the mission, Sakura wanted to see her parents again, Naruto wanted to enjoy Ichiraku ramen, and Sasuke wanted to learn more jutsus. The squad quickly made it the Hokage tower where Kakashi gave the mission report, including how the mission rank should be upgraded to A.

"Genin Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke, is this report accurate?"

All three replied with, "Yes Hokage-sama." Well Sakura and Sasuke did while Naruto said, "Sure is Old Man."

Sighing, the Hokage said, "I'll be sure to note the change in mission rank and pay. Kakashi, next time the situation becomes more dangerous, send for backup."

"I will Hokage-sama, it was a stupid mistake on my part, one that won't happen again."

"Alright. Sasuke and Sakura you two are dismissed. Kakashi and Naruto, please stay here for a moment."

After his teammates had left, Naruto asked, "So what do you want with us Old Man?"

"Naruto show some respect to the Hokage." Kakashi lazily chastised.

Laughing slightly, Hiruzen said, "No, no it's quite alright. But I'm afraid I have a serious matter to discuss with you two." When he was done speaking, Hiruzen showed the pair a copy of Danzo's planned speech. Naruto went deathly white as he said, "Old Man, you know I would never do that, why would anyone say this?"

Sighing, Hiruzen told the boy, "It would seem that Sasuke wrote to a member of the village council while your team was still in Wave, giving them enough information to craft a story so you would be arrested and kicked out of the shinobi forces."

"That Bastard!" Naruto yelled. "After I save his life this is how he thanks me, by accusing me of purposefully putting him in danger! If he thinks that I'm just going to take this he has another things coming."

"Naruto calm down and think rationally." The Hokage ordered. "It is true, you can fight this accusation, but you would do more harm than good. You would have to appear before a court and plead your case, meaning you would need to hire a legal representative. There is also the fact that we do not know how long the case could go on for, it could end the week it starts or in five years. In that amount of time you would have to continue to pay your lawyer, draining you of finical resources. You do have some money to your name, but Sasuke inherited the fortune of an entire clan. He can afford to throw away some of his money, you cannot."

The office was silent as Naruto digested what the Hokage had told him. The only witnesses to the fight against Haku was himself and Sasuke. If Naruto took the case to court, even if it was a shinobi court, there was sure to be some people that would believe Sasuke no matter in hopes of gaining the Uchiha's favor. Seeing that there was no other choice, Naruto asked, "So how does just nodding my head make me able to keep my shinobi license?"

Smiling slightly, Hiruzen said, "Well Naruto, it appears you were not supposed to be assigned to Squad Seven in the first place. When I first had the meeting with the jonin who were teaching this year, we came up with the squads that were used. Yet after the meeting ended I saw some errors and fixed them, by that time Kakashi finally showed up and approved his team. It seems there was a mistake somewhere and the first list was used instead of the final list."

Seeing what the plan was Kakashi quickly said, "Oh yeah, I remember that conversation. I figured you changed the teams back when Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto were the only genin left in the classroom."

Naruto gave the two adults a deadpan stair and said, "I'm not an idiot you know." To which the Hokage countered, "Do you want to lose your license?" The boy quickly shook his head no before asking, "So who am I getting swapped out with?"

"Right," taking a brief look at the "original" squad listing the Hokage said, "you will be replacing Shino Aburame from Team Eight. When I talked with my advisors we felt you would excel on that team, and when we corrected your grades from the academy we found your intelligence level to be similar."

Kakashi paled a little bit. Kurenai was a fresh jonin, but it was highly known she was very protective of her team. He did not want to be the one to tell her about the "correction" to her squad.

"Is that all Old Man?" Naruto asked.

"Yes that is it, be here on Monday at Eight so that you can meet your new sensei."

Nodding his head, Naruto left the office. When they were alone, Hiruzen asked, "Are you okay with this Kakashi?"

"Truthfully?" Kakashi began. "I'm not. My sensei's son should be treated as a hero for what he contains; instead he is shunned and beaten. He had his academy teaching sabotaged. And finally, when I have the chance to help him succeed, some whinny bitch who doesn't have it a fraction as bad as Naruto almost ruins his entire life."

"I know Kakashi, the kid has not had a fair lot in life. If you or anyone else saw the fight we wouldn't have any difficulty, but the Uchiha got word to his supporters first. The official record states that you were preoccupied fighting Zabuza and Sakura stayed with the bridge builder. This was the best we can do, I know Kurenai won't be biased against the boy and his new teammates should be friendly to him. You may leave now; I know you don't want to be in here when Kurenai shows up."

Nodding his head, Kakashi walked out of the office. 'There might be something more I can do.' Kakashi though, remembering a book that the Third Hokage had ordered all copies to be destroyed, but Kakashi decided to hold on to one in secret. 'Naruto has always been a smart child, even if he hid his intelligence well, I'm sure he will be able to figure it out.'

* * *

Laying on his bed and staring up at his celling, Naruto couldn't believe how much his life had changed so quickly. In the span of a few short hours, he had gone from being the celebrated hero of the Land of Waves to his teammate accusing him of essentially using the Uchiha as a human shield. Now his dream of being the Hokage had been threatened, he was too depressed for ramen. He was broken from these thoughts when he heard a knock at his door. Not bothering to get off his bed, the boy yelled out, "If you've come to trash my apartment again, could you skip it tonight? I'm not in the mood to clean up the mess."

Instead of going away, the knocking at the door became more forceful. Admitting defeat, Naruto finally got off his bed and opened his door. Surprisingly, there wasn't an angry villager waiting for him. Instead on his door mat was a book with a note covering the title. Picking up the book, Naruto noted it had hardback brown cover and was about the size of Kakashi's Icha Icha. Picking up the note, he read, "Let's see if you are smart enough to find out the entire truth."

Voicing his thoughts, Naruto said, "The entire truth about what?" He then looked at the title of the book. Naruto actually found some measure of happiness as he read aloud, "A History of the Hokages."

* * *

Hiruzen was finishing up the last of the paperwork for the day when his office door was thrown open. Despite his secretary yelling to the woman that she needed an appointment, Kurenai Yuhi marched into the office and stood impatiently in front of the Hokage.

"Kurenai, to what do I owe your visit, finally come to tell me you're dating my son?"

"Skip it Hokage-sama," the genjutsu mistress said, "and tell me why you are messing with my squad and showing extreme favoritism."

"Let me remind you Kurenai, I am the Hokage, meaning I am your boss."

"Be that as it may, I requested my team for the expressed purpose of forming a tracking squad, something that will not be possible with Uzumaki. I also remember you approved my request in front of all the assembled jonin."

"You do have a point there, before we continue this conversation, could you look at the proposed change in academy curriculum? I would like to get a second opinion before I present it to the council."

As she quickly looked over the changes, Kurenai was struck by the simple genus of the changes. "I'd say the teacher who came to you with these ideas should be given a pay raise. They brought up good points, why was it we only practiced on static targets when we would most likely meet moving opponents. I also think they were right to implement the trap making and stealth classes. Their idea of having academy students run low-risk D rank missions would help to teach teamwork and leadership skills as well as allow you to issue more missions and bring in more money from said missions."

Taking the paper back from the jonin, Hiruzen smiled as he said, "Thank you for input Kurenai. Now, as for why I have messed with your squad and, as you claim, shown favoritism to young Naruto is simple, I am saving the shinobi career of the promising genin who suggested these changes."

Kurenai was stunned at that. "With all respect Hokage-sama, I don't believe you."

Hiruzen just smiled again as he pulled out an academy work book and tossed it to Kurenai. "This workbook contains an essay that Naruto wrote for one of his tests. The changes you read are taken directly from the boy's work, showing how he believed the academy system could be improved. You will also notice that the grader gave him a failing grade for this brilliant work. This team change will fix another problem me and the village elders recently encountered."

Giving the workbook back Kurenai asked, "And what problem would that be?"

Sighing, the aged leader stated, "During his time at the academy, Naruto's education was sabotaged. Every instructor, save for Iruka, either erased his answers or marked his correct answers as wrong. If it were not for this bias the boy would have passed his first genin test. Don't think I'm just doing this for Naruto, this is also helping you squad."

"Really Hokage-sama? My squad has already had time to get to know each other better and work well as a cohesive unit. So tell me, how will taking one known element out of the equation and replacing it with an unknown help an already perfect team?"

Glaring slightly, the Hokage stated, "Because your team is too overspecialized. Yes, the team you have created will be able to track almost any target, but what then? Hinata might be able to disable them, if the target allows her to get into close quarters combat. Kiba might be able to use his family jutsus, if he is not separated from Akamaru. Shino could use his insects to drain the targets chakra, assuming they do not know any wide area jutsus that would kill most, if not all, of the insects. Now let's put Naruto into the equation. His pranks have made him adapt at trap making, meaning once your team identified the target he could incapacitate them quickly by leading them to a trap. He knows the shadow clone jutsu, so if you were to encounter a particularly troublesome opponent he could, with his large chakra reserves, literally become a one man army. Lastly let's consider his stealth. Let me ask you Kurenai, if he can avoid my ANBU wearing that much orange, how good is he really?"

The office was silent for ten minutes as Kurenai thought about what her leader had said. Thinking rationally, she could see where she had made a mistake during the team assignment. She had counted on Hinata being the primary tracker with her clan's kekkei genkai while Shino and Kiba would act as the heavy hitters and incapacitate the target. However, she did not realize that each genin had inherit weaknesses with their fighting style. Sighing in defeat, Kurenai said, "I accept this change under heavy protest."

Smiling once more, Hiruzen said, "I can allow that. Give the boy a chance Kurenai, you saw his work, he has potential. Be here at eight on Monday to collect your new genin, bring Shino for his reassignment. You are dismissed."

"Yes Hokage-sama." As Kurenai was walking out of the office, the only though in her head was, 'If I have to deal with this on Monday, I need a drink now.'

* * *

A joy Naruto found at an early age was reading. When he was chased by a mob on his fourth birthday, he somehow ended up in one of the villages libraries. Luckily for the boy the librarian was a retired kunoichi and allowed the boy to stay in the building. Once business had slowed down the librarian noticed the boy struggling with a book of simple fairy tales and took it upon herself to teach the boy to read. Since then Naruto had been an avid reader when presented with the chance; the books provided a temporary escape from the hate filled glares.

The one subject that would never fail to capture the boy's attention was that of the Hokages. Naruto had always been adamant that he would be the next leader, so he believed he would need to know as much as he could about his predecessors. During his time in the academy, Naruto had grabbed every book that he could find about his heroes, but this book provided more information then he could hope.

The book had the standard information he had learned in the academy, the First and Second Hokages were brothers, Old Man third was the Second's student with the First providing some tutoring, and the Fourth was the student of one of the Third's students. But this book also had a mountain of new information for the blond. He never knew that the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, had almost been assassinated by a ninja from the Village Hidden by a Waterfall, but gave them the Seven-Tailed Beetle as a sign of goodwill. He found it ironic that the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, had the second shortest rein, but sacrificing himself to allow his students to live seemed like a good way to go. When he got to the Old Man, Naruto was sad to learn that his wife was killed during the Kyubi attack. He stopped reading the book, wondering if when Hiruzen saw him if it was a reminder of his wife's death. Deciding to talk to the Old Man about it later, Naruto moved onto the Fourth Hokage.

Naruto read the first two pages of the chapter, which were just a short introduction about the amazing feats that the man did. He was reading the last paragraph aloud, "While the man has been credited with the first, and possible only, flee on sight order in the Bingo books, perhaps the greatest feat of Minato Namikaze is how a humble orphan rose to become the village's leader. The parentage of Namikaze-sama has long been a matter of debate. The most prominent theory is that.." the boy then turned the page. Before he finished turning the page, Naruto saw that the rest of the book was blank, perhaps that was why he never saw it before, it obviously was never finished. Once the page was completely turned the boy almost dropped the book when he saw the full page photo. He didn't know what it meant, but he knew that he would be researching for the rest of the weekend. Thank Kami the librarian taught him how to use the filing system.

* * *

Amaterasu was woken from her nap by something poking her side. Lazily lifting her head, the sun goddess saw a man with long flowing blonde hair wearing a pink kimono, purple pants, and large geta sandals. With a glare, Ammy asked why the man, Waka, woke her.

"Sure to bother you, mon amie," Waka began, "but I figured you would like to be informed about important events of the friends you made while in Nippon." The member of the Moon Tribe then motioned to the viewing portal to his side.

The wolf goddess saw two girls. The older of the two was around sixteen and had long black hair in twin ponytails and wore a pink hōumongi with a green sash along with a large straw sun hat and veil. The younger of the two was perhaps ten years old and also had black hair, only hers was shoulder length, her hōumongi was orange with green trim and lacked a sash, and she kept her hat on her back. Ammy immediately recognized the two as the sisters Camille and Camellia. Ammy knew the pair were not native to the land of Nippon. The sisters' ancestors, who Ammy meet during her time traveling, and come from a distant land and were planting Sakura trees. Camille and Camellia were on a quest to trace the trees back to their ancestor's homeland. What shocked the sun goddess was that the pair were currently being chased by a man wielding a chipped katana. As she had no power in the land the events were taking place in, Ammy could only watch and hope for the girls' safety.

* * *

Camille was dragging her sister as they desperately ran away from the bandit. They were so close to seeing their ancestors' homeland, but after they had reached this continent they had to travel a vast distance. They were lucky so far, they had heard tales in the hotels they stayed in about dangerous criminals, but they had managed to avoid trouble. That changed 20 minutes ago.

The sisters had been walking along the road, looking for a place to stay for the night, when they heard something off to the side. Being curious, Camellia dragged her sister to the bushes on the side of the road. There the sisters saw a man in a dirty blue kimono shirt and pants with chipped katana muttering about how a blond kid had led to the death of his meal ticket. Knowing trouble awaited them, Camille grabbed her sister and backed away from the man, however she stepped on a branch, altering the man to the two girls.

This led to the present, with both girls desperate to get away from the man. They might have made it, if Camellia hadn't tripped on a rock. With a cry of "sister" Camille knelt by her sister with her back to the man chasing them, hoping to shield the younger girl from the sword strike.

The blow never came, instead the sisters heard a whoosh of air. Looking behind them, the two girls saw that the man who was chasing them had stopped, dropping his sword when a crossbow bolt became lodged in his shoulder.

"I thought we told you thugs to get out of our country! Leave now so I don't have to kill you in front of these ladies."

The man followed their savior's instruction's, turning around and running away. Turing around to meet their hero, the girls were shocked to find a boy that couldn't be much older than Camellia wearing overalls and a bucket hat while carrying a crossbow. Quickly getting over her shock, Camille said, "Thank you young man for rescuing me and my sister."

Smiling at the pair, the boy said, "Don't worry about it Miss, just doing the right thing. My name's Inari, and you two would be?"

"Oh right, my name is Camille and this is my sister Camellia."

Looking at the two, Inari asked, "You two aren't from around her are you?"

Shaking her head, Camille said, "No, we came here hopping to find our ancestor's homeland. We were hoping to find a new home."

Turing to her sister, Camellia asked, "Sister why do we have to go back? I liked Nippon better than here."

"That may be," Camille scolded her sister, "but we need to at least visit the land so we can pay our respects. However, maybe you're right, maybe we should go back to Nippon."

Looking at the two, Inari asked, "Do you two have a place to stay? If not I'm sure my mom won't mind feeding two extra mouths for the night."

"Thank you Inari." The older sister began before asking, "Where is your home."

"Oh don't worry," the boy began, "my house is right outside the village, we just have to cross the bridge first."

* * *

Amaterasu and Waka watched the events unfold, both thankful for the boy's timely rescue. The pair watched as the boy talked to the sisters while he lead them out of the woods and back to the main road. After walking for some time, the trio came to a stone bridge.

Whistling, Waka admitted, "That is an impressive bridge, it's bigger than the one in Sei'an City. The only problem is the name, I mean really, why name such an impressive structure after a ramen ingredient?"

Waka was further confused when her heard the goddess growl at him. While Waka went off on his tangent, Amaterasu was thinking, 'It can't be true can it? I thought that land was a different world. If it's true maybe I can finally meet my son.' When she heard Waka's criticism of the bridge's name, she imminently growled at her friend while thinking, 'The name means "maelstrom"!'

* * *

**So this is the first chapter of my second story. Much like my first story, I didn't get as far as I wanted to in the first chapter, but I feel that at 13 and a half pages, I need to cut this off for a first chapter. So, you'll notice that I'm starting this fic after the wave mission, from here on out I'm straying from the cannon into AU territory. **

**It's likely that I'm not going to update this fic as quickly as I am **_**A New Realm **_**as the later is mostly my own ideas while I'm going to try to incorporate some elements of Okami and Okamiden into this fic. To do this I have to options, either replay the game again or watch some let's plays. Either way is going to take some time which I don't have a lot of these days.**

**In case you didn't read it on my other fic, college is starting to occupy most of my time now so I can't devote as much time to this hobby. Having said that, when I do have some free time, I'm going to look at the amount of activity this chapter and chapter four of **_**A New Realm **_**each get to help me decide which one I update first.**

**With the opening of this chapter some questions are presented including,**

**What did Naruto see in the book?**

**How will the new Team Eight work?**

**What will happen when Amaterasu meets her son?**

**I hope you have enjoyed the beginning of my second story. This is acw28 saying, "until next update.**


	2. The Beginning of a New Journey

**Updated 2/19/15: Forget the disclaimer in the initial posting**

**Hello everyone and welcome to chapter two of **_**Son of the Sun! **_

**Again, I'm surprised that I'm actually able to write so soon. So, if you're reading this then you know that I decided to update this story before I write the next chapter for **_**A New Realm. **_**This is partially because at the moment I'm writing this, this story has five more views, but mainly due to the fact that the first chapter had almost half the amount of reviews that my four chapter (so far) story had, and most of them were positive and are asking me to continue. I did get one negative review, which I don't mind. I understand that there are some people who just don't like my writing and I can accept that, but if you leave a review saying so, please be polite and respectful, unlike the guest reviewer "voodoo".**

**So, with that out of the way, let's get started with the story.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to either intellectual property used for the creation of this story.**

* * *

As Inari had guessed, Camille and Camellia were warmly received by his mom as well as the rest of the villagers. After crossing the bridge, the trio quickly made their way to the town's center, where a celebration of Gato's overthrow was still going on. Once introductions were made, it was time for dinner. It was a simple affair, some fish, rice, a number of roasted pork, a number of vegetables, and sake for the older villagers to drink. In short, it would be considered a feast if Gato was still in power.

"So," Tsunami, Inari's mom, began, "my son tells me that you are not from around here, where did you travel from?"

"Some time ago we came by ship from the land of Nippon across the sea."

"I've heard of that place," Tazuna, the bridge builder and Inari's grandfather said, "the sailors that use to come through here brought back tales of it being a somewhat peaceful land that was infested by demons."

"Compared to what my sister and I just experienced," Camille began, "I would have to agree with you. When we travelled the country side we did not encounter any problems, the only criminal we heard of was a pickpocket when we were staying in a city. We did see some demons, but if you pay enough attention you can avoid them most of the time."

"Sounds nice," a random villager called out, "but why would you two leave that place to come here? Don't get me wrong, the Elemental Nations are generally a nice place and I don't have any intention of leaving my home, but this Nippon still sounds a heck of a lot better than here."

"Well you see," the older sister began, "our family was not originally from Nippon."

"Right," the younger of the pair continued, "we were always told that they traveled from a far away land and planted the guardian saplings as they traveled. One day sister decided that we needed to go back to where our ancestors came from, so we traced the saplings back to here."

"Well not here exactly." Camille corrected her sister.

"And just where did your ancestors come from?" Inari asked.

"Well, based on where we have found the saplings and the stories from my childhood, we think it maybe a village somewhere in what you call the Land of Fire. Our parents always told me that the first of our family who traveled came from a land of great conflict. One day two men from two powerful clans offered to buy my ancestor's land so that they could build a village. Growing tired of the violence, my ancestor's agreed and used the money to travel and find a new home."

Tazuna scratched his chin a stated, "Based on my limited knowledge of history, it sounds like you mean to go to Konoha. Based on what that blond brat said, and what that duck butt said as well, the village was founded by two men from two different powerful clans."

"That's great," Camellia said, "We can go there, pay our respects and then go back to Nippon!"

"It won't be that easy," the bridge builder said, "It's about a weeks travel from here, not to mention there are probably some more of Gato's old forces around here. Also, to my knowledge the village doesn't have a port, so you would have to travel more."

"And what do you suggest we do Tazuna-san?" Camille asked.

"Well why don't you wait until tomorrow to leave. We still need to bring the last bit of our mission payment to the village. You could go to the village with Maruishi," here Tazuna motioned to a mountain of a man who looked to be one hundred percent muscle, "to deter any bandits on your way. Once you get there, you can probably hire out a team to escort you home. The village's leader is fairly nice and I'm sure you can set up a payment plan with him."

"Thank you Tazuna-san, that is a wonderful idea."

"Just make sure you get Team Seven," Tsunami interjected, "Naruto-kun was the driving force behind protecting my father, that bridge, and this village."

Here everyone at the feast yelled out "to Naruto" before downing more sake. Confused, Camille asked, "Is this boy really that good?"

"Of course he is," Inari answered, "why do you think we named the bridge after him?"

* * *

After leaving the Hokage's office, Kurenai walked to a nearby shinobi only bar. She had a lot on her mind. Even if she had accepted the change to the squad roster, she still hated the fact that her team was being split up. She was a newly appointed jonin, this was here chance to prove herself. To make sure she made a good impression, she decided to teach a squad that the village desperately needed, one that focused on tracking. To insure their success, she had spent months researching in the shinobi archives to see what team combinations had worked best. She believed she came to the perfect unit when she asked for the heirs of the Inuzuka, Aburame, and Hyuga clans.

Drinking another saucer of sake, Kurenai heard, "Going at it a little hard tonight aren't you Kurenai? What happened, you get demoted?"

Turning around, the kunoichi saw a bearded man in the standard jonin uniform. This was the man that she had a crush on while in the academy, had openly dated while a genin, had missed when she was a chunin, and was in a "secret" relationship with ever since he returned to the village. To most he was known as the last living son of the Third Hokage, to her and a few friends he was Asuma Sarutobi.

"No," Kurenai answered, "but with his new orders your dad might as well have."

Asuma stiffened slightly. It was well known that he was uncomfortable whenever his relationship to the Hokage was brought up. The man had spent his first years at the academy to his last day as a chunin living in the shadow of his father, The God of Shinobi. It was why he had such a falling out with his father and left the day he was promoted to jonin to join the Guardian Twelve.

Regaining his composure, Asuma asked, "And just what did Hokage-sama order you to do, take a triple S ranked mission?"

"He might as well," a somewhat drunk Kurenai said, "he broke up my team."

"I thought you got approval for your tracking squad."

"Oh I did," Kurenai paused to have another saucer of sake, "but then he goes and switches Shino with the Uzumaki for some reason he refuses to tell me. He basically said that since I'm a new jonin he doesn't trust my judgment and I need my hand held. I spent months research who should be on my squad, then I'm told to just be quite and deal with what I've got."

Stopping the woman from taking another drink, Asuma said, "Kurenai, you're drunk and you need to calm down. I'm sure that's not what Hokage-sama thinks of you. As bad as he can be about his family at times, the man is a genius on all things shinobi related. Now, what rank did those shinobi have when you did your research?"

"Well, most where chunin but why should that make a difference? They all have the same clan jutsus and training."

"Maybe, but they don't have the same amount of practice." Asuma countered. "See, maybe you did make a mistake when you selected your team. Hokage-sama is not trying to punish you for it, instead he is trying to make you recognize the mistake and learn from it so you won't repeat it."

Having some clarity of mind, Kurenai though on what both Sarutobis had said. True, she had assumed that all members of the same clan would have relatively the same abilities no matter what rank they held. The Hokage did say that the change was to benefit her squad as much as the Uzumaki. Sighing, Kurenai mumbled, "Maybe two are right, maybe I was too quick in selecting my team. That still doesn't solve my problem with what to do with Uzumaki."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about Naruto that much," Asuma stated, "give the kid a chance and he could get along with just about anyone. I may have been away from the village, but based on what I've heard he had somewhat of a friendship with Kiba when they were in the academy. I don't think I need to say anything on how this change will effect Hinata."

If she hadn't had so much sake, Kurenai would already know what her "secret" lover meant, but at the moment she wasn't thinking clearly, "What do you mean 'will effect Hinata,' that punk better not try anything with that girl! If you so much as touches her, I'll show that kid how good I am with a kunai!" To illustrate her point, Kurenai took a large kitchen knife, no one knows where it came from, and stabbed it two inches into the wooden bar.

Asuma felt three sweet drops on the back of his head. 'Yeah,' he thought, 'she's been hanging out with Anko too much recently,' before saying, "Okay, one almost the entire village knows that the girl has a massive crush on the brat. If he's on your team that might help her build some self-confidence, maybe the boy will also learn a bit more about human emotions. Also, Kurenai, I know this kid, I had to watch him a lot when I was a chunin. I talked to a couple people who actually see him as human, sure they admitted he could be a little energetic and likes to prank people every now and then, but he is always kind and respectful to people who treat him right."

"Maybe your right Asuma, guess I jumped the kunai a bit with what Hokage-sama wanted me to do. Hey since we're both here, why don't we finish eating, then head back to…" as she was finishing her thought, Kurenai suddenly passed out, her head falling on the counter of the bar with some light snoring heard.

Sighing, Asuma paid off his "secret" lover's tab before grabbing her and started carrying her back to her apartment. He probably would have enjoyed some alone time, but he would have had to decline anyway. He had to watch Konohamaru tomorrow. He needed all his energy and wits with him, his nephew always had a new prank planed.

* * *

Hiruzen never had as much fun in the weekly council meetings as he did right now. Usually the meetings were a snore feast for anyone with shinobi experience. The meetings usually followed a certain pattern. The civilian side would have a civilian issue, then would try to take some shinobi resources, such as building new homes in one of the less used training grounds. The shinobi side would have an issue with the suggestion, as they stated while a training field might not be in immediate use the shinobi might need to train in the terrain shortly. When both sides agreed not to change anything the civilians would try something to elevate Sasuke's status, last time they tried to force the Hokage to allow the Uchiha to have the old Namikaze estate. However, this meeting took a drastically different course.

"So now that we are all in agreement with my paperwork reform," Hiruzen began, "do we have any other business or can we end this and go to lunch?"

"Actually Hiruzen," a heavily bandaged man with a can, Danzo, began, "I do believe we have a problem with one of the genin in our shinobi force."

"First Danzo," Hiruzen began, "let me remind you that I am the Hokage, you will show me the respect that title deserves and use it. Now what seems to be your complaint?" the aged leader asked, although he already knew what it was.

"I have been given information that the C-ranked mission that you have assigned Team Seven, who I shall remind the honorable council contains young Sasuke Uchiha, has been elevated to and A-ranked mission based on information that the client withheld."

So far Danzo had stuck with his script, giving Hiruzen the perfect opportunity to interrupt and try to stop the "wounded" man's momentum. "Yes, that is true, but I don't see how this past event matters in the present. Any mission a shinobi takes, be it as simple as a D-rank or as complex as an S-rank, can change in an instant, to which our forces need to be able to adapt."

Having to pause slightly as he did not expect his rival to interrupt, Danzo continued saying, "You may be right Hokage-sama, but I ask what if another one of our shinobi willingly endangered the life of another?"

One of the civilian council members who Danzo had in his pocket played his part, asking, "What are you saying Danzo-sama, has something happened to Uchiha-sama?"

Internally smiling at his brilliant plan coming together, Danzo said, "It has come to my attention that during the mission both Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki engaged an opponent that was able to use Ice Style jutsus. It was during this confrontation that Uzumaki forced young Sasuke in front of the majority of the attacks, using the boy as a human shield."

Instantly the entire council room erupted into yelling. The civilian half was going on about how the demon brat needed to be punished. The clans on the other hand were denying the accusation, having all, at one point or another, interacted with the boy and knowing if anything he would take the majority of the attacks himself.

"That is enough! We are all adults here, we will not behave like teenagers chasing after the latest gossip! Now Danzo, do you have anything else to say?" Hiruzen asked after regaining control of the room.

"Yes," Danzo began, feeling smug about soon possessing the ultimate weapon to conquer the world in the good of Konoha, "it is clear that the boy must be kicked out of the shinobi program. As long he remains on the same team as Sasuke…"

Here Homura decided to interrupt Danzo and help to ruin his plans, "Oh, you didn't know? I guess Koharu and I forgot to tell everyone. It seemed that when we delivered the team roster to the academy we had a mix up and delivered an earlier, flawed version. Rest assured that the mistake has been corrected. I feel sorry for young Aburame, being switched with Uzumaki after a month of getting to know his teammates."

"Now Danzo," Koharu asked, "from where did you get the information to make these accusations?"

Knowing he was now fighting a potentially losing battle, and knowing he could not slander the Uchiha name, Danzo instead replied, "I am afraid I cannot reveal the identity of my reputable source."

"Never the less, you have brought forth a serious issue. Make no mistake, a full investigation will be launched to insure we know the truth in regards to Naruto's behavior during the mission. If these accusations are true I'm afraid Naruto will have to be punished, however if we are wasting precious time and resources on a wild goose chase someone else will need to be held accounted. Now, I believe it is time for lunch, good day ladies and gentlemen."

As everyone was walking out of the council room, each person had varying thoughts. The Hokage and his advisors were glad their plan had worked. Most of the clan heads were hoping nothing came up that could potentially incriminate Naruto, even though they know he was innocent. The civilians were either grateful that the "demon" was off "Uchiha-sama's" team or hoping this was a chance to legal get rid of said "demon." Danzo was in slight shock, wondering how his carefully laid plan had backfired so spectacularly.

* * *

The following Monday, Naruto was awakened by his alarm clock. Reaching out, the boy slammed the snooze button and tried to get back to sleep. Normally he was not this tired in the mornings, he often beat his alarm after running five laps around the district he lived in. The one detail that many didn't realize was that the blond had spent his weekend at the library and village archives researching.

To anyone not familiar with the village's system it would have taken them over half a year to gather the information he had learned in two days. Starting with the declassified ANBU files, he searched by mask until he found who he was looking for. After that it was a matter of finding mission reports of the two individuals and cross-referencing the available dates. While he couldn't sort through all of the information in two days, he was able to make copies to study later.

When the alarm went off again, Naruto was about to chuck a kunai at it until he heard a voice say, "You know, ninjas should be able to get up in the morning."

Finally sitting up in his bed, Naruto answered by saying, "Only when they are on combat duty. Besides Kakahsi-sensei, I was doing research late into the night yesterday."

"Oh," the silver haired man asked, "and just what were you studying?"

"Just a few topics that currently hold my interest. Speaking of which I might have some questions for you in the near future, but right now can you tell me why you are in my apartment?"

"Right," the man scratched his neck, "I figured I probably wasn't the best sensei to you in our short time together, but I probably should walk you to the Hokage's tower for your reassignment. Really Naruto, I'm sorry events have played out like this."

Waving off the man's concerns, Naruto said, "Don't worry about it too much Kakashi-sensei, at least you tried to give me a good education unlike most of the academy. It's not like you could have expect the actions one emo would do. Let's head out to the Old Man's office so I can meet my new sensei."

* * *

Hiruzen almost had a heart attack seeing Kakashi arrive five minutes early. After they had gotten the aged leader calmed down and convinced him Kakashi was not an imposter, the pair had to wait a few minutes for Kurenai to arrive with Naruto's replacement. After the short wait, Kurenai walked into the office leading a boy with a grey coat that covered the lower half of his face while a pair of sunglasses stopped anyone from viewing his eyes.

"Ah, Shino you're here. I trust you have been informed about why you are here?"

"Yes Hokage-sama," the bug user began, "it seems there was a mistake in the genin assignment and I accidently took Naruto-san's place," turning to the blond he said, "I am sorry for my mistake."

"Don't worry about it Shino, you're not at fault here. Piece of advice, show up 3 hours later than what Kakashi-sensei tells you. The first time I saw him on time was when my former team went on an out of village mission."

"Thank you Naruto-san."

Clearing his throat to gain everyone's attention, Hiruzen asked, with a pointed look at Kurenai, "Now do we have anything else to discuss?" to which he heard four simultaneous, "No Hokage-sama." Smiling, the Hokage said, "Right, well you are all dismissed to introduce your new genin to your squads."

* * *

At a bridge in the middle of the village, Sasuke and Sakura were getting comfortable for their three hour wait for their sensei. They were shocked when they only had to wait five minutes for the notoriously tardy jonin. Even more shocking was the Naruto was absent.

"Well my cute little genin, are you ready to begin training?"

"But Kakashi-sensei, Naruto-baka isn't here yet." Sakura stated.

"Yes, well it seems that there was an error in the squad assignments that's now been corrected, Shino will now be replacing Naruto on Team Seven."

Sakura was creeped out at this revelation. She could handle Naruto asking her out every day until she got promoted and left him in the dust, but she didn't think she could handle Shino's jutsus. She had read all about the Aburame clan and she didn't want any bugs near her! Sasuke was indifferent, he was just glad the dobe was gone and wouldn't take anymore of his time.

* * *

Training Ground Eight

Currently Kiba Inuzuka, his canine partner Akamaru, and Hinata Hyuga were standing in the training ground's clearing waiting for their third squad member and their sensei to show up.

"Where are they?" Kiba questioned, "Shino is always the first one here, and Kurenai-sensei usually shows up two minutes early."

"Calm down Kiba," Hinata lightly scolded her friend, "I'm sure they both have a reason to keep us waiting for ten minutes."

Kiba was about to respond when he caught the familiar scent of his sensei, along with someone who smelled like ramen and foxes. Turning around, Kiba called out to the two people entering the clearing, "Good morning sensei. Naruto what are you doing here?"

Answering her student, Kurenai said, "It seemed like the elders made a mistake in delivering the squad list, Naruto was suppose to be on our team instead of Shino."

This produced two different reactions from the two clan heirs. Kiba walked up to his academy friend, offering a fist bump as he said, "Alright, the pranking duo has been reunited. Try to keep up with me this time." While he and Naruto got into a friendly argument about how much they had improved, Hinata was slowly absorbing the information. 'I'm on the same team as Naruto-kun' kept repeating in her head, causing Hinata to have a light blush. Seeing this, Naruto called out in concern for his new teammate, "Hinata, are you feeling okay, you look like you might be coming down with something." When he didn't receive a response, Naruto put his hand on Hinata's forehead to see if she had a fever. "Well you don't have a fever, maybe allergies are affecting you." Hinata didn't even hear Naruto, instead she kept thinking, 'Naruto put his hand on me.' This thought became too much for her, resulting in the Hyuga heiress to faint.

"Ah, Hinata! Kurenai-sensei, I think something's wrong with Hinata!" Kurenai only sighed, thinking how much more work it would be to get the young girls confidence up enough to train normally. Kiba just laughed at his teammates' situations while Akamaru happily barked along.

* * *

Twenty minutes later

After Hinata had regained consciousness, Kurenai decided to have a team free for all sparing match to see where Naruto's skill level was at. The match itself was a surprise, with Kurenai only stipulation being to avoid lethal and maiming blows. Kiba was knocked out first, he had attempted to use his families "Beast Human Clone" technique with Akamaru, however both were still relatively inexperienced when using the move in actual combat, resulting in the two being separated by the other genin. Naruto had then swarmed Kiba with five shadow clones while Hinata had knocked Akamaru out while the pup was still getting use to walking on two legs.

After they had taken care of their respective opponents, Naruto and Hinata charged at each other. Naruto tried to use the same clone strategy against Hinata, but she quickly dispelled the leftovers from the attack on Kiba and never gave Naruto the chance to summon more. The next five minutes was a blur of punches, kicks, and parries between the two. Kurenai was about to call the spar a tie when Hinat saw an opening. When Naruto overextended his leg for another kick, she quickly swept the boy's other leg out from under him. While he was falling forward, Hinata quickly moved behind Naruto and, with a series of lightning fast gentle fist strikes, temporarily paralyzed her new teammate.

"Well it looks like we have a winner," Kurenai announced, "congratulations Hinata."

"Wow, Hinata that was some move, you're really strong." the girl's "secret" crush exclaimed.

'Naruto thinks I'm strong. Naruto likes strong girls. Does Naruto like me?' The implications of her train of thought caused Hinata to faint and fall forward, right on top of Naruto. "Sensei," the blond called out, "Hinata fainted again, and I can't get up."

Sighing, but smiling softly, Kurenai told her new student, "Just wait for her to wake up, then we'll have her fix your back." Once done thinking, the jonin thought, 'It's probably not going to be easy teaching these kids,' seeing Naruto struggle to get out from underneath Hinata as the girl's arms encircled the boy, Kurenai continued her thought, 'but it sure is going to be fun.'

* * *

Once Hinata had awoken once more, and nearly fainting again when she realized she had unconsciously cuddled with her crush, and had unsealed Naruto's chakra, Kurenai decided to begin the days training and get a mission after lunch.

"Okay you three," the jonin sensei announced, "today we are going to be practicing your chakra control. To do that we are going to be doing a training technique known as tree climbing."

"Um, Kurenai-sensei," Naruto interrupted, "I already learned this during my mission to Wave country while I was on Team Seven."

"Ano," Hinata also interjected, "I lea…ar..rn…ned th..his as we..ell Kurenai-se..ens…sai."

Mentally face palming at her students returning stutter, Kurenai turned to Kiba and asked, "Do you know how to do this as well?"

"Well, I've seen Hana-neesan do it when I was younger, but I've never done it myself."

"Okay then," Kurenai said, formulating a change of plans, "Kiba will stay here and work with me on tree climbing while Naruto and Hinata go and grab us some lunch. After we're done eating we'll go to Hokage tower and get the day's mission."

* * *

In the middle of the village, Naruto and Hinata were walking to the restaurant Kurenai had told the pair to go to. While walking down main street, Hinata noticed the glares the majority of the civilan population was giving Naruto. While having a bit more confidence than she once did after beating Naruto during the spar, Hinata was still too shy to ask her crush why he received such looks. Instead she settled on asking herself, 'Why do they look at you like that Naruto-kun?"

Naruto was also concerned. The villagers never tried to harm him when there were neutral witnesses around, but he hoped they didn't glare at Hinata like they did him. He knew that she was the closes thing the village had to a princess and probably never received a mean look in her life, and now she had to walk next to someone who got them daily.

They had arrived at the restaurant when a voice called out, "You there, what are you doing with Hinata-sama?"

Turning around, the pair saw a man with lightly tanned skin, long brown hair, and medical wrapping around his forehead. What worried Naruto was that the man was settling into a basic gentle fist stance. Luckily Hinata intervened before things turned violent.

"Ko-san," the heiress began, "this i..is Na…ar…aruto. He is my teammate."

Everyone around was surprised that Hinata had been able to complete her sentence with little stuttering. However, Ko was not satisfied with the answer and stated, "I was told that your teammates were the heirs of the Inuzuka and Aburame clans."

Here Naruto shrugged his shoulders and said, "Old Man Hokage made a mistake during the team assignments and just recently corrected it."

The Hyuga stepped out of his stance when he heard this, he was not one to go against the Hokage's wishes. "Very well, but just know Uzumaki-san, if you hurt Hinata-sama, me and the rest of the Hyuga clan will hunt you down."

Naruto scratched his cheek as he said, "Don't worry about it Ko-san, I don't hurt my friends." Hinata smiled slightly at be acknowledged by her crush, "Besides," the boy continued, "Hinata is more than capable of kicking my ass herself."

Instantly Ko's Byakugan blazed to life as he yelled, "Don't use such uncivilized language in front of Hinata-sama!" and charged the boy. While Hinata stood in line, a blush on her face from Naruto's praise, Naruto spent the next half hour barely dodging gentle fist strikes.

* * *

After Kiba had completed tree climbing to an acceptable level, and after having a nice lunch, Team Eight made their way up the stairs of the Hokage tower to receive their mission. As they were about open the doors to the mission hall, they were greeted by Team Seven on their way out from getting a mission themselves.

"Hey Kakashi-sensei, Shino, Sakura, _Sasuke_," Naruto called out to each member of Team Seven, with some venom in his voice when he greeted Sasuke, "did you guys just get a mission?"

"Of course we did dobe," was the Uchiha's reply, "why else would we be here?" 'And why are you still a ninja?' was the unsaid question in the boy's head.

"Yeah," Sakura said, supporting "her" Sasuke, "we got to choose between the last two missions. Have fun with the cat while we watch the Hokage's grandson."

Kurenai was slightly panicked at what the pink haired girl said, 'Please don't let it be Tora,' the genjutsu mistress prayed, 'they aren't ready for that demon yet.'

Walking into the mission hall, Team Eight was greeted by the Hokage. "Ah Team Eight," the aged leader began, "I'm pleased to see that you three have adjusted well to the change in squad members."

"It's not that big a deal Old Man."

"Naruto!" Kurenai yelled at her student, "Show your respect to the Hokage! I'm sorry Hokage-sama, please forgive him."

Waving off the woman's concern, Hiruzen replied, "Don't worry about it too much Kurenai, I allow Naruto some leeway when he addresses me, besides I need to be reminded of my age every now and then. And the mission I have for your team is punishment enough."

"It's not…" Kurenai feebly began.

"Oh, but it is," the old man smiled as he said, "Team Eight's mission for today is to capture the Fire Lord's wife's cat, Tora, and bring said cat back here unharmed." The genin could swear they saw an evil glimmer in the Hokage's eyes.

Once Kurenai was handed the mission scroll and lead her team outside, she turned and asked, "Do any of you three have any idea on how we can pull this off?"

Kiba and Hinata both looked at the ground in admittance that they didn't know what to do, having dealt with the cat before and receiving the cuts to prove it. Naruto however was rubbing his chin, then suddenly snapped his fingers, "Sensei," he began, "I might have an idea."

* * *

Twenty minutes later in the Mission Hall

Hiruzen was not a man that was surprised easily. He had face many enemy shinobi and had his hand crushed multiple times when his wife was in labor. But the sight in front of him was what almost gave him a heart attack as he believed the end of days was coming.

Standing before the Hokage's desk was a smiling, and unscratched Team Eight. Standing to the Hokage's far left was Hinata, who was currently holding a cat carrier with a sleeping Tora inside. Regaining his wits, Hiruzen asked, "Kurenai, may I have your mission report."

Smiling, Kurenai said, "Certainly Hokage-sama, but I believe Naruto should deliver it."

"Very well," turning his gaze to said boy, "Naruto-kun, could you please tell me how you managed to tie the record for the fastest capture of the cat, and come back with you and your teammates unhurt?"

"Easy Old Man," cue a whack to the back of Naruto's head by Kurenai, "We had Kiba and Akamaru track down where Tora was. Once we were within twenty meters of the target, we had Hinata locate the target's exact location. I then moved further ahead of the target and set up simple trap to immobilize the target. Knowing the cat would attack any ninja teams sent after it, we instead had Akamaru chase the target to the trapped area. After the cat was immobilized, we quickly put it in the cat carrier for our own safety as well as its own. I gave it some Tuna to help it calm down, but it's the most relaxed when Hinata-ch," Naruto faked a cough to cover his slip of tongue, "sorry, when Hinata is carrying it."

Impressed by his genin's tactics, Hiruzen smiled as he said, "Good job, leave Tora with one of our Chunin, he'll be returned tomorrow. As you tied for first place in fastest Tora retrieval time, I believe you all will receive a bonus. Now are there any questions?"

"Actually Hokage-sama," Kurenai began, "I was curious how Team Seven's babysitting mission went."

"Also who did we tie with?" Naruto and Kiba both asked at the same time.

Looking over his mission reports, Hiruzen said, "Let's see. When Team Seven first entered the Sarutobi compound they believed the place to be deserted. After all four had walked into the entryway and closed the door, they were all glitter bombed. Konohamaru reviled himself due to uncontrollable laughter and was chased by Sasuke and Sakura. He lined up a few more pranks for them while being chased. He was only caught with five minutes until the end of the mission by Kakashi, and only received a light scolding on revealing his position."

At the news of Team Seven's mission, Kiba and Akamaru were rolling on the floor laughing, Naruto was doubled over and supporting himself with a hand on Hinata's shoulder, Hinata didn't notice as she was giggling, which Naruto found cute, and Kurenai was hiding a smile behind her hand.

"As for who you tied," the Hokage said once everyone had stopped laughing, "Our records show that Tora had previously been caught and returned in twenty minutes with the team members being unharmed twice, once by a team lead by my student Jiraiya, and once by a team lead by my student Tsunade."

Here all three of the genin's mouths dropped. Naruto was the first to recover, closing his mouth he picked up Hinata and started spinning around, saying "We tied the Fourth Hokage, how awesome are we?" Kiba and Hinata soon regained their composure, Kiba laughed at seeing his friend's reaction while Hinata began to blush at being held by Naruto. "Naruto, could you pl..lease put me down?"

By the time Naruto heard Hinata's request it was too late, as she passed out with a smile on her face. "Ah," the boy cried out in alarm, "Kurenai-sensei, it happened again."

Everyone in the room mentally laughed at how dense Naruto could be.

* * *

One week later

Hiruzen was finishing his morning paper work by reviewing the genin mission reports. He was impressed, since the change in roster; Team Eight had completed the most missions and had even gone on a simple C-ranked delivery mission to a neighboring village. Team Seven had finally caught up to where they were before the switch, but so far had not done anything more than D-ranked missions. As he had finished the last of the paper work, three people walked into his office.

"Ah Maruishi," Hiruzen began, recognizing the man from his previous trips to the village, "I assume you are here with the last payment of Tazuna's mission. Who are the two young ladies you brought with you?"

"You are correct in your assumption Hokage-sama," the mountain of a man began, "as for these two, they are potential clients of yours."

"Oh really? And just how may the village of Konoha help you two."

"You see, Hokage-sama was it?" The older of the two began, "my sister and I come from a land across the sea. We had come here to live in the land of our ancestors, but due to certain events now wish to pay our respects then return to where we came from. We were hoping that you could provide us with an escort to the nearest port that would take us home. I'm afraid that we don't have much money with us, but Tazuna-san mentioned something about a payment plan."

Smiling at the two, Hiruzen replied, "Of course we can help you with that. I honestly don't know how we can set you up on a payment plan, with you traveling off the continent. However, the interest rate from Tazuna's mission has more than paid for itself, so I think we may be able to just eat the cost for once, though I'm afraid I will have to assign a team of genin to your mission. You understand I need my more powerful shinobi in the village and can't have them work for free."

Immediately both sisters bowed in front of the Hokage, saying thank you repeatedly. "Really, you two don't have to thank me so much. I am just an old man who is happy to help those in trouble. Now do you two have a preference to who I assign, or are you good with whoever?"

The younger girl spoke up for the first time, "Sister, the bridge builder said Team Seven was good."

Nodding to what her sister said, the older of the two said, "Yes Hokage-sama, may we have Team Seven as our escorts?"

"Very well, ANBU, please go collect Kakashi and his team. They have a mission request from Miss?"

"My name is Camille and this is my sister Camellia."

* * *

After waiting ten minutes, Team Seven walked into the Hokage's office. "Good you're all here," the leader said, "Your team has been requested for an extended escort mission. I want you all packed and ready to leave when your clients," here Hiruzen pointed to the two sisters, "are ready to go."

"Excuse me, Hokage-sama," Maruishi interjected, "I am curious, but where is Naruto-san?"

Sasuke bristled slightly as he said, "That dobe isn't important, we can do the mission without him."

Here Maruishi raised an eyebrow. "Really," the man questioned, "as I remember it Naruto was the one who came up with the strategy to defeat Zabuzu the first time. He was also the one to inspire Inari, who in turn inspired the rest of the villagers. Not to mention he was the one who took the majority of the attacks Haku used, he not only saved you but from where I was it looked as if you may have pushed him into some of those attacks."

Sasuke was sweating on the inside. He had counted on only himself and the dobe being able to see the fight. Yeah, maybe he pushed his way out of some of the more aggressive attacks, but he was an Uchiha, the village's future, not some no clan loser.

"Maruishi," the Hokage said, gaining everyone's attention, "just how do you know all of this?"

"Well when I heard the fighting on the bridge I was worried the violence would eventually move inland and threaten my family. I used an old spyglass my grandfather had and looked at the bridge. Kakashi and Zabuza were mostly at a standstill, but the battle against Haku was happening at such a fast pace I was engrossed by it."

"Very well. After you deliver your payment to the treasury would you be willing to stick around to sign off on a written statement?"

"Sure I don't see why not." The man then gained a thoughtful look as he asked, "Naruto hasn't gotten into any trouble has he?"

"Oh no he hasn't," the Hokage waved off the man's concern, "at least not anymore." Turning back to the two sisters, the Hokage asked, "In light of this new information, would you two still like to hire Team Seven or would like a different option?"

"Seeing as how this Naruto was the main factor to the success of the team," Camille began.

"We would like the team Naruto is currently assigned to." Camellia finished.

Glad Naruto would be out of the village when the initial outrage of that the completed investigation was sure to bring, Hiruzen smiled as he said, "Very well. Team Seven, you are dismissed. Miss Camille and Miss Camellia, please go enjoy yourselves in out village. I assure you your escort will be ready by the time you leave."

* * *

Five minutes later

In front of the Hokage now stood the members of Team Eight. Clearing his throat, Hiruzen said, "It seems that your team is in a curious situation."

"How so Old Man?" After Naruto voiced his question, he felt Kurenai whack the back of his head. She had long since given up trying to make the boy address the Hokage properly, but she still felt he needed a reminder not everyone could be greeted so casually.

"This morning a client requested an escort mission for your team."

"In all respect Hokage-sama," Kiba spoke up, "the village gets escort missions all the time. We've already had one C-rank mission go well, I'm sure that we can handle another one."

"That may be true Kiba, what is unique is that the client requested Naruto by name, apparently he came highly recommended due to his actions in Wave Country."

"So I guess Old Man Tazuna and Inari remember me."

"Yes, as I understand they named the bridge after you."

Here everyone assembled felt their mouths hit the floor and their eyes widen. Hinata was the first to recover, asking, "Naruto-kun has a bridge named after him?" Due to spending so much time around her crush, and being complemented numerous times about how strong she was, Hinata now rarely stuttered and only fainted in extreme circumstances.

Shrugging his shoulder, Naruto said, "What can I say, I'm just that awesome."

Clearing his throat to regain the genin's attention, Hiruzen said, "Yes apparently you are. However, Kiba you made a mistake in saying this would be a C-ranked mission. Due to the great distance you will need to travel I'm making this a B-ranked mission if you choose to accept."

Turning to her genin, Kurenai asked, "Well, do you think you three are up of it?"

Kiba immediately answered, "Of course we are! Me and Naruto are two of the best fighters in our generation, not to mention Hinata can warn us about incoming threats." Akamaru barked his agreement.

Naruto spoke up next, saying, "I've already completed one A-ranked mission, a B-rank shouldn't give me any trouble."

Hinata was silent for a moment, before saying, "If we can help someone, I would like to try."

Smiling at her students words, Kurenai turned to the Hokage and said, "It appears that Team Eight accepts the mission."

"Good," Hiruzen said, looking up from the mission scroll, "all of you should pack for an extended journey. I don't know how long the trip will take, but I hope it does not cause too much of an inconvenience to you four. Meet at the village's North gate in about an hour to begin your mission."

* * *

Once the hour had passed, Team Eight was able to finally meet their clients, the two sisters Camille and Camellia. Luckily the Team and the clients immediately got along, with Camellia overjoyed at being able to pet Akamaru. After the short introduction was made, Kurenai pulled out a map showing the location and names of various towns and villages within the Land of Fire. To the dismay of the entire group, the closes port would be too small for any ship visiting or traveling to Nippon. The group would have to travel far south to the larger ports, which would take well over a month at a civilian pace. During the travels, nothing of note happened. The shinobi admired how the sisters were able to keep pace with them, even if Camellia would occasionally get a piggyback ride from one of the genin.

After a month of quite travel and training, Team Eight and their clients arrived late at night in the port and resolved to look for a ship tomorrow. An unsaid agreement by all was that they were happy to actually sleep on a mattress instead of a tent for the night.

The next morning the group of five were able to see the entire port for the first time. All five were awestruck by the variety of ships currently at the docks, ranging from small fishing boats to large transport ships. Realizing how daunting the challenge of finding a ship willing to carry the sisters home and just become, Kurenai quickly took action.

"Okay team," the jonin announced, "since time is of the essence, we're going to split up to find a ship for our client. First, me, Camille, and Camellia will take the North end of the docks." Here everyone agreed. "Kiba I want you and Akamaru to ask around the bars and inns, see if anyone recently returned from Nippon." Kiba responded with a "Hai, sensei" while Akamaru barked.

Kurenai was now left with Naruto and Hinata. She knew that she couldn't split these two up, they may be in Fire country, but having a young un-sealed Hyuga around an area where someone could make a quick getaway was a bad idea. Plus she wanted to see if she could get the girl's confidence up enough to ask the blond out on a date.

"Naruto and Hinata, I want you two to look around the South end of the docs. Please stick together, and remember to ask the captains on the large transport ships first, they're more likely to be going overseas than the smaller ships."

After receiving acknowledgement of her instructions, Kurenai then said, "Okay then team, we'll meet back here at noon to have lunch and discuss our findings.

* * *

Noon

Team Eight and the sisters where currently sitting at a table enjoying some chicken and rice while discussing what each person had found out.

"Unfortunately the North end turned out to be a bust. The majority of the boats are owned by locals who just use them for weekend fishing. The bigger boats are yachts whose owners don't charter out rides." Kurenai said with a sign.

"We didn't have much luck on the South side either." Naruto began with Hinata nodding before she finished, "There are a few of the larger ships willing to let Camille and Camellia on board, but I fear that they are charging too much for the journey."

"I think that's our best answer," Kiba said putting his two bits in the conversation, "talk around the bars is that not many are willing to go to Nippon. It's a long journey that while profitable, usually takes more time than someone can afford to waste."

"I'm sorry for the amount of effort me and my sister have cause you four." Camille spoke up. "Please, you have done more than enough. You can go home and my sister and I will wait for a ship to take us to Nippon."

"We can't have that," Naruto said, "we promised that we would see you two onto a ship home to Nippon. We wouldn't be completing our mission if we just left you in this port."

"Did you say you were traveling to Nippon?" The group turned to see their waiter had asked the question.

"Yes," Kurenai began, "we are looking for a ship to take these two young ladies home. Do you know of one we can hire?"

"Why yes I can. I know a fella who is going to be heading out here shortly. He's the only one that regularly sails to Nippon, always brings back interesting things, like what's on your table." Here the man gestured to what appeared to be a fairly large sized red wooden object that had a stern man's face painted on it, however one of the man's eyes was missing.

Seeing this, Naruto spoke up saying, "This is incomplete." He then grabbed a wet paintbrush from the waiter's apron and painted the missing eye. Immediately the small wooden man shook violently, almost falling off the table, but then suddenly stopped. Before anyone could breath a sigh of relief, the top half literally jumped off and fell to the table.

"Brat," the waiter began, "I hope you plan on paying for that. That import cost the owner quite a lot of money."

Naruto wasn't paying attention to the man. Instead his focus was on the bottom half of the object. Inside he could just barely see the white tip of something. Reaching his hand into the hollow space, Naruto pulled out a small white statue of a dog, though Naruto though it looked more wolfish. What was unique was that the dog had several red swirls painted on its body and face, and seemed to have what could be described as wings flowing off its shoulders. After looking at the statue, Naruto quickly took out a scroll and sealed the statue away.

"Hello, brat are you even listening to me?" Turning his attention to the man, Naruto asked, "Sorry, I was distracted, what did you ask?"

Clearly irritated, the waiter said, "I asked how you plan on paying for the imported item that you broke." Naruto looked confused until the waiter pointed to the two halves of the wooden man. Gaining a look of understanding, Naruto smiled as he put the top half back on the bottom half. The waiter was about to throw the group out while Naruto's teammates were getting ready to defend him, when all at the table, save Naruto, were surprised as the two halves became whole again.

Recovering from her shock, Kurenai asked the man, "Now where did you say that ship to Nippon was?"

Slightly glaring at Naruto, the waiter said, "Bay 1103, here's your check."

After paying for their meal, the group started walking towards the ship. At the back of the group, Hinata tugged on Naruto's arm to get his attention. "Ano, Naruto-kun," she began, "how did you know what would happen back there?"

"Truthfully Hinata, I don't know. I just felt like that's what would happen if I put the two pieces back together."

* * *

Arriving at bay 1103, the group was greeted by a medium sized wooden transport ship. Not seeing any activity on board, Kurenai called out, "Hello, is there anyone on board? We have business with the captain of this vessel."

The group heard a muffled "I'm coming" before a tanned man wearing a brown shirt appeared over the railing. After a minute looking at the group, the man said, "Well, what do you five want with me?"

"Are you the captain of this ship?"

"Aye that I am? Now what do you want with me shinobi-san?"

"Well you see…" Kurenai began, only to stop when she didn't know the man's name. Seeing her situation, the man said, "Just call me Captain." "Right, well Captain," Kurenai began again, "we were told that you frequently sail to Nippon."

"Aye, that I do, but what does that have anything to do with me?"

"Well you see," Kurenai began, growing impatient with the man, "these two sisters are originally from that land and wish to return there and your ship is the only one that we might be able to afford passage on. So would you be so kind as to fairy these two home?"

The Captain seemed to contemplate things for a minute before he spoke up, "As much as I would like to, at the moment I can't," the Captain held up his hand before Kurenai began to question him, "It's true that I usually go to Nippon, but recently pirates have begun to show up in those waters. I am confident in the ability of my crew to protect themselves, provided they don't have to look after two young girls."

"Ano," Hinata spoke up, "what do you suggest Captain?"

"Well those girls hired you to see them home didn't they? I'll allow free passage provided they have some protection with them that can lend a hand around the ship. I'm shoving off an hour after my crew gets back, you have 'til then to decided if you're comin' aboard or stayin' ashore."

Turning to her team, Kurenai said, "This goes way beyond what we were hired to do." Turning to the sisters, Kurenai stated, "I know we were hired to see you home, but my team are still genins, they don't have enough experience for this. I'm sorry."

Kiba decided to speak up, saying, "In all respect Kurenai-sensei, you're wrong. We may be genin, but that doesn't change the job we were hired to do. We need to get these two home, we have a ride that is practically free, we're not going to get a better opportunity."

"Kiba's right Kurenai-sensei," Naruto interjected, "besides my first C-rank mission turned into an A-rank mission. We need to be prepared for a mission to change at any moment."

Letting what her students say sink in, Kurenai turned to Hinata and asked, "I suppose you agree with these two knuckle heads, don't you?" Hinata only nodded her head, determination could be seen in her eyes, she wanted to complete the mission as well.

Sighing, Kurenai told her students and clients, "Let's hurry back and grab our things from the inn and get back here. I need to send a message to Hokage-sama explaining the change of plans."

Everyone smiled when Camellia crash tackled Kurenai saying thank you repeatedly.

* * *

Celestial Plane

Ever since she had seen Camille and Camellia cross the Great Naruto Bridge, Amaterasu had kept her gaze glued to the viewing portal, even after Waka had left. When she saw the sisters pass the village gates, there was no denying it, she hadn't visited a different world all those years ago, she merely went across the sea.

The goddess watched as the sisters explored Konoha, recalling fond memories of her time there such as the ramen bar where Minato took her for their first date. When she heard her son's name, she hoped that it was who she believed it to be. Once she saw him, their was no mistaking it. She only held him once as a baby, but she would never forget his blond spiky hair or his blue eyes. She watched as her son helped the two sisters to the port, then was surprised when he helped convince his sensei to let the team sail with the sisters.

"I can't believe he's coming here!" Amaterasu nearly squealed to herself, only to grow deathly serious. "Oh no, what if he doesn't know about me? What if he does? I haven't been in his life for twelve years, now he suddenly learns I've been alive all this time, and a goddess on top of that? That's a nice excuse, 'Hi son. Sorry I haven't been around since the day you were born. I didn't realize I could have traveled across the ocean and seen you, I though you existed in another dimension.' Yeah, that will go over smoothly."

Closing her eyes and taking a calming breath, Amaterasu finally was able to regain some composure. "I haven't been in his life for twelve years, there is no excuse for that. That doesn't mean I can't be a mother now." Looking back at the portal, the wolf goddess' gaze lingered on her son while he helped Camellia up onto the ship. Smiling at her son's kind nature, the sun goddess had one last thought before taking a nap.

"I can't wait until you get here my little maelstrom, I have so much to teach you."

* * *

**Holy cow this was a long chapter to write, the longest yet with me being at the top of the 20****th**** page in word. Much like how my writing usually ends, I didn't get as far as I originally wanted to. When I first started writing this chapter, I intended to end when the group makes it to Nippon, but I feel that I left my readers at a good stopping point. I'm one of those people that enjoys long chapters, but feels that at a certain point the chapter can be too long, you know what I mean? I tend to have infrequent chapter lengths so let me know if you are okay with how long my chapters are, or if you want me to try to lengthen or shorten them.**

**I'm hoping to update my other story sometime within the next two months and will hopefully have another chapter for both ready a little before or after spring break. I have it in my head the general direction I want my current stories to head in, but I need to flush out the details a bit more. I can do that relatively easy with **_**A New Realm **_**since that's mostly my own ideas, I'm probably going to wait a until all of the announcements are done for **_**Mortal Kombat X **_**so I know whether I want to use any of the character designs in my story. For this story though, as I said in the previous chapter, I need to what some "Let's plays" since at the moment I don't have the time to replay **_**Okamiden. **_**I found a good series of videos on YouTube, and while I can skip around some of the more tedious parts of the game, each video averages around half an hour, so that'll take some time, but I think it's well worth it so I can produce quality work. On top of that, I'm considering starting a new story off one of my plot ideas once I reach chapter 5 here and around chapter 7 in **_**A New Realm**_**. If I do start another story, let me know which one you'd like to see started.**

**With this chapter done we saw that Team Eight can work well together, but there are now some new questions, including…**

**What is going to happen during the voyage to Nippon?**

**What will happen once Team Eight arrives in Nippon?**

**What does Amaterasu want to teach her son?**

**Find out the answers in future chapters of **_**Son of the Sun**_**! Remember, if you enjoyed what you read, leave a review. I'm still willing to answer a question to the first person with an account who leaves one, it's kind of become my policy to offer it even if no one takes advantage of it.**

**With that said, here's acw28 saying, "until next update."**


	3. Truths revealed

**Hello everyone, its acw28 back with another chapter of **_**Son of the Sun**_**!**

**I have to say that I am surprised, until just recently this story had more followers and favorites than **_**A New Realm **_**did, as well as more reviews. Truthfully, I never expected maybe more than a handful of people to consistently read my work, but both my stories have over 70 followers! So right now I just have to thank all of you reading this and say that I hope you will enjoy whatever I write in the future.**

**So with that sappiness out of the way, let's get down to business. So since I wrote the gigantic chapter for my other story, I decided to take a short break from writing **_**A New Realm **_**so that I don't get burned out from it as well as see if there is anything in MK X that I'm going to want to use. As I don't want to just stop writing, I decided to focus a bit more on this story and advance the plot along. I feel like I've kind of neglected this story, this is only the third chapter while my first story is up to chapter five!**

**So, with all that said, I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Okami, if I did we would be playing Okami 3 (I count Okamiden as a sequel, not a spin off) and Jiraiya would still be alive.**

* * *

In the middle of the ocean

The genin of Team Eight had learned a very important lesson in the week and a half since they had left the port, sailing is boring. Initially all of the children were excited to be on the ship, this feeling left after a day. When the ship traveled into deeper waters, the Konoha shinobi discovered that Hinata was susceptible to severe motion sickness, meaning she could most often be found leaning over the railing or on her bed, a bucket nearby. While Kiba and Naruto weren't seasick, they were just as bored. Despite both having mastered tree climbing, Kurenai forbid them to practice water walking so that the crew wouldn't have to fish them out of the ocean, again, for the fifth time.

Currently the two boys were put to work checking the sails rigging, being able to use chakra made the job go a lot faster. After making sure that everything was secure to take full advantage of the favorable wind, Kiba shouted across the boat to Naruto, "I'm going to go dig the fishing poles out and see if I have any luck, you want to join?"

Naruto thought for a moment before saying, "No thanks Kiba, I think I'm going to go relax by the bow for a moment."

Kiba shrugged his shoulder and said, "Knock yourself out, just don't fall overboard. The captain said he'd let us be shark bait next time we get wet."

* * *

Sitting at the bow and looking at the horizon, Naruto felt at peace. Looking around to see if he was alone, Naruto once more unsealed the small dog/wolf statue he had collected. Looking over the statue once more, the boy was mesmerized by sculpture and the line work. Turning the statue around so that he was looking directly at the dog/wolf's face, the blond genin couldn't help but feel a connection.

The boy might have stayed in this peaceful state for an eternity, but a small voice made itself known when it asked, "What are you doing?" After flailing around and almost dropping the statue into the water, Naruto turned to see that Camellia had snuck up behind him. Once he regained his composure, Naruto cleared his throat and told the little girl, "Nothing, just relaxing for a moment before the captain gives me and Kiba another job."

The little girl nodded her head and was about to walk away when she noticed the statue in Naruto's hand. Being the curious child she was, Camellia asked, "What's that?" as she pointed to the boy's hand.

Looking down, Naruto saw that he had failed to reseal the statue. He wasn't exactly sure he should still be holding on to it, he didn't pay for it but he did find it, but still he felt connected to it for some reason. Deciding the little girl couldn't get him in trouble, Naruto knelt down and showed her the statue as he said, "Just something I found in the port before we left."

Looking at the statue, Camellia smiled before she said, "It looks like the funny doggie me and my sister saw in Nippon.'

Raising an eyebrow, Naruto asked, "And what did this dog do that made it funny?"

The girl tilted her head to the side as she said, "Well the doggie didn't do anything funny, but funny things happened to my sister whenever we found it. She didn't believe the doggie had the funny make up on, but said she would if a tree sprang up in front of here, sure enough a tree sprung up out of nowhere and almost hit her!"

Naruto shared a laugh with the girl before saying, "Come on it's late, we should probably head to the mess hall before Kiba eats everything."

* * *

Today was one of the better days for Hinata. She still felt somewhat nauseous so she really couldn't help out around the ship, but at least she was up and walking. She took note of Naruto and Kiba scrapping barnacles off the side of the boat. She hoped that they wouldn't fall in the ocean, Kiba had managed to catch a fairly large shark the other day and she wanted her teammates to be in one piece when they got home. Kurenai-sensei was below deck, looking over a map with the navigator. As for the two clients, they were currently giving Akamaru an almost unhealthy amount of attention. She also noticed that the Captain was acting strangely today, always looking to the North with his telescope.

She was about to question the man, when he turned to her and asked, "You're from the Hyuga clan right? Your eyes can see far away?"

Hinata nodded her head and said, "Hai, I can see a little over four kilometers with my Byakugan activated." (A/N I'm an American so I'd normally use our system of measuring, i.e. feet, miles, etc., but the wiki lists everything metrically and I don't feel like looking up a bunch of conversions.)

The Captain nodded before saying, "Do me a favor and look out that way," the man pointed North, "and tell me what you see."

Hinata nodded and activated her Byakugan. After a few minutes of searching she found what she thought the Captain wanted and said, "I see a ship a little larger than ours, it looks like they are also towing a small boat."

"What does the flag look like and what of the man at the wheel?" the Captain nervously asked.

Hinata concentrated for a few minutes, the other ship growing ever closer, before she said, "The flag is black with what looks like a skeletal fist holding a heart. The man is wearing a trench coat with no shirt, he has a full beard, is missing his left eye, and has several large scars on his chest, over his heart."

"Ah, curse it all to Davy Jones!" the Captain suddenly yelled, gaining Kurenai's attention. "What is the matter Captain?" She called from down below.

"I'll tell you what the blood matter is, one the worst pirates in the world is chasing after us with no way for us to escape! We're too far from any port and the wind is giving him the advantage. The only thing we can do is have most of the crew go below deck and hope he decides we aren't worth the trouble."

Kurneai nodded and yelled, "Naruto, Kiba, get up here and get below!" She then turned to the two sisters and said, "Go down below as far as you can, Kiba and Akamaru will keep you safe."

As most of the crew was running below deck, the Captain grabbed Kurenai, Hinata, and Naruto. Dragging them to the port side, he bent down and opened three hidden trapped doors. "We use this space for extra cargo when we find something really good, I want you three to hide in here. Stay low, only pop up if something is happen'."

Kurenai wanted her team to wait below deck, but she knew that the Captain was the absolute authority on this ship. They were lucky to get free passage, if they had to fight against some pirates so be it, she knew Kiba could handle anyone in the cramped space below deck. Turning to her two genin, the woman nodded her head and said, "Get it."

The Captain helped each shinobi into one of the compartments, then closed the lid so that it was barely open, giving the protectors a small glimpse of the deck as well as the ability to hear his orders. He then walked back to the helm, and waited. He only hoped to avoid conflict.

* * *

Thirty minutes later the pirate ship was pulling alongside the ship, with the Pirate at the helm calling out, "Now what have we here? A small transport ship out in the open sea, what business would you have?"

The Captain swallowed a lump in his throat as he said, "My business is that of my own. I implore you to leave me be, I have nothing of value on this ship and simply wish to be on my way."

"Is that so? Then you wouldn't mind some of my men coming over and takin' a look now would ya?"

"I would rather not, I would not want it to be a misconception that I associate with you."

"Oh, so you have heard of me?" the pirate asked, smiling all the while.

"Of course," the Captain said, "everyone in these waters knows of the Heartless One-eye." (A/N: I know, lame name."

"Then you know what I said earlier was not a request. Crusher," a huge man wielding an equally big two handed hammer appeared on deck, "take the crew over and bring me back something pretty."

"I would heavily advise against that action." the Captain said, but his advice feel on deaf ears, crusher and four other men grabbed some loose rigging and started to swing between the two ships. 'It can't be helped then.' The Captain thought before yelling, "To arms!"

As soon as the pirates landed on deck, the three shinobi leaped out onto the deck. Crusher just grinned as he said, "Well, quite a lot of security for an empty cargo hold. Fan out and find the booty!" As soon as he said this, each of his underlings squired away. One armed with a large dagger leaped at Naruto, another with a mace swung at Kurenai, the one with a sword ran up to engage the Captain, one with a multitude of knives strapped to his belt ran below deck, Crusher grinned as he looked at Hinata.

(A/N: The following events happen simultaneously)

* * *

With the Sword

The sword wilding man easily ran up to the ship's helm. They had done this strategy a million times, some would stay on deck to inspire fear, another would scout out below deck to see if they were taking treasure of captives, and he would dispose of the captain.

Steel met steel as the two men first engaged. It was in this brief second that the Captain was able to study his adversary's weapon. It was indeed a fine sword, the spotless blade showed the man kept it clean and well looked after. What drew the Captain's attention was the handguard, made of gold or brass, it was decorated with a few gems and had a number of metal cords woven together to protect the man's hand. It looked even more spectacular compared to the handguard of the Captains sword, a single dull piece of iron formed a solid shield, the handle a simple dole of wood.

'Probably picked the sword off of a dead officer.' the captain thought. 'Which means it was meant more for ceremony then actual combat. Let's see how strong that blade really is.'

What followed was a period of each man trying to deliver a connecting sword swipe, only for his opponent to block it with his own blade. The entire time, the Captain listened carefully after each one of his slashed was blocked, until he heard a particularly sharp ring. 'There, that's the sweet spot.'

Before anymore fighting could take place, both men felt a heavy level of malice in the air. The pirate was frozen for a brief second, not use to feeling so much ferocity when he boarded a ship. The Captain, however, was unaffected, having to fight in such conditions before. He quickly kicked his opponent, forcing the man to his knees, then prepared for an overhead strike. The pirate saw the attack coming, but knew he was too slow to counterattack. Instead he held his sword above his head, using his free hand to help brace for the impact. The Captain struck where his blow had previously been blocked, shattering the ornamental blade into two. The pirate didn't have time to be surprised when the Captains blade dug down into his skull, only stopping between the pirate's eyes.

Putting his foot on the corpses shoulder, the Captain yanked backwards and freed his blade. Not hearing anymore fights, the Captain turned to inspect the aftermath of the skirmish. "Great," he thought aloud, "I just had the deck repaired to."

* * *

With the Knives

The pirate quickly ran through an open door way. He had the distinction of being the fastest member of the Heartless crew, meaning he was always one of the first on the ship to scout out the treasure.

So far he had encountered some resistance, but it was nothing he couldn't handle. His knives were the perfect weapon for fighting in the cramped corridors of the ship, it also helped that he could hit a bulls eye from fifty paces with one of his blades. He was sure to give the ones he ran across wounds that would take them down but not out, he didn't know what the captain would do with the crew just yet.

He was about to take out another member of the crew, someone wearing a grey jacket, when his target deflected the knife with a kunai. Now that he was seeing the front of his victim, he could plainly see the Konoha Hitai-ate and grew excited. He was always ready to take on a shinobi and prove he was just as good with a short blade without the fancy training.

Rushing at the boy as he drew another knife, the man tried to skewer the kid, only to have his knife once more deflected by the kid, this time forcing it and the man's arm to the side. "Well kid, I'll admit you have some skills." The man then reached behind his back to grab another knife. He prepared to strike from the side, only for the kid to grab his wrist. "Thanks," Kiba began, "but I've also got friends."

The man didn't know what hit him as a small, white cyclone hit him in the stomach. Akamaru's claws gave the man a multitude of deep cuts, but that wasn't the really damage. Unseen to everyone, the force on continuous spinning of the pup's attack caused the man's intestines, kidney's, and stomach to rupture. The pain was so intense that he passed out, he'd die from internal bleeding within a minute.

"Good thing we figured out how you could do a gatsuga without you needing to transform, 'ey partner?" Kiba questioned his dog, which barked in agreement.

Before they could celebrate anymore, Kiba felt the air become heavy with malice. "Akamaru stay here, I need to check this out." The dog whined, but stayed up nonetheless. When Kiba got on deck, he could only look on and ask, "What happened here?"

* * *

With the Mace

Kurenai was cursing her luck. All she wanted was to have a functioning team. She didn't care that her team was the first to be officially assigned a B-ranked mission. So wouldn't brag about this to the other jonin senseis, she was content to be proud of her students. What she did want was for Hinata to grew in her confidence, for Kiba to become more mature, and for Naruto to be accepted by the majority of people.

Instead here she was, dodging a maniac with a mace. To add to her annoyance, she couldn't make any handsigns to cast a genjutsu as the man was too aggressive in his attacks. Instead she just had to wait for him to tire from swinging his mace, yet this man seemed to have as much endurance as her blond student.

She had been dodging the attacks for maybe five minutes when she heard a sickening sound of a crush. She hoped she was wrong, only to here the man known as Crusher say, "That'll teach you, you little bitch!"

Instantly the air became heavy with malice. Although she had only felt it from a far distance once, Kurenai thought that Naruto's seal had broken, that the Kyubi had been released. 'Wait, no,' the jonin thought, 'the Kyubi felt more evil than this, this is just extreme anger.' Taking advantage of her opponents pause in attack, the woman quickly un-holstered a kunai and shoved it between the man's ribs. Turning around to see her studnets, the genjutsu mistress only thought, 'Naruto.'

* * *

With Crusher

After the other members of his boarding party left him, Crusher smiled to himself, he was left fighting a little girl. "Just give up girly, it'll save you a lot of pain." Instead of cowering like he expected her to, Hinata settled into a taijutsu stance. "Fine have it your way." He then swung his hammer downward, only for the girl to dodge and strike a few points in his arm.

"Stop it, that tickles." The man said, swinging his hammer down again, only hitting the deck once more.

Seeing that the gentle fist was next to useless against the man, Hinata took out a kunai. When she dodged the next hammer strike, she gave the man a long, shallow cut along his arm. "Hey that actually hurt a bit you bitch!"

As Crusher got angrier, he swings became faster. Hinata was able to dodge all of his strikes, until he did a low horizontal swing. The hammer connected with the Hyuga's thigh, the girl heard a sickening crunch and felt immense pain, but did not cry out. Not satisfied with his work, the man swung backhandedly, catching the girl's lower leg. Even as she feel onto the deck in pain, the girl didn't cry out, only grimaced.

"That'll teach you, you little bitch!" the man screamed before he felt the air around him become heavy. He then felt a pain in his chest and fell to the deck, dead.

* * *

With Dagger

As the man leap toward him, Naruto pulled out a kunai to try to parry the blade away. However, the older man and spent his entire life on the water, he knew not only to fight with his blade, but also how to do so while off balanced. The man simply danced around the boy, even when Naruto kicked one of the man's legs back the more experienced foe still kept a stable stance as he stabbed out at the boy.

Naruto was growing impatient. Brining his hands to a familiar seal, the boy cried out, "Kage Bushin no Jutsu!" Two copies of the boy sprang up from nowhere and, with the original, rushed their opponent. The man was having a somewhat more difficult time with his extra opponents, when he would dodge or parry one blade, two more would strike out, with one usually biting into his flesh.

As the fight was going his way, Naruto took the opportunity to observe how everyone else was doing. What he saw was Crusher using his hammer to break Hinata's leg not once, but twice. When he heard the man call Hinata a bitch, he just lost it. He felt angry, then he felt his anger making him stronger. His whicker-like marks became thicker, his nails and canines lengthen, his eyes became red and silted. He knew that he was using the fox's power, but he didn't care!

Faster than his oppenonet could follow, Naruto and his clones shoved a kunai into the man's skull, his throat, and his heart. Running away as the body feel and his clones dispersed, Naruto rushed behind Crusher. As he stood gloating above Hinata, Naruto thrust his hand into his back, until he felt something solid. Naruto then closed his fist around Crusher's heart, ending the man's life.

Naruto was still angry, he then turned his head to the side and spotted the pirate's ship. It was their fault! If they hadn't attacked Hinata wouldn't have been hurt. He was vaguely aware of Kiba coming up from below deck, but he didn't care. Naruto jumped the gap between the ships, landing directly opposite the Heartless One-eye. Not wasting a second, the boy jammed a kunai into the middle of the patchwork of scars. The old pirate winced in pain, but smiled as he said, "You're going to have to try harder than that lad."

Naruto was confused, he felt his kunai sink into the man's muscle, but he didn't feel a heart. Deciding to test his luck, the boy pulled his kunai out of the left side of the man's chest, then stabbed into the right side of the chest, hitting the man's hidden heart. The one-eyed man had a look of surprise on his face as he fell to his knees. He feebly tried to pull the blade out of his chest before collapsing, dead.

* * *

Naruto had finally calmed down and jumped back to the other ship. By now the uninjured crewmen had come up from below, he vaguely heard the Captain ordering them to go to the other boat and take what was available, but his main focus was on his teammates. Kurenai and Kiba were both kneeling next to the downed Hinata. "Shit, this is bad." muttered Kurenai under her breath before ordering her genin, "Kiba go make sure the sisters don't come out of their cabin. Naruto help me get Hinata below." Both boys nodded, but as they were walking to the stairwell Kiba asked, "Hey Naruto, what was with the strange jutsu earlier, some kind of kekkei genkai?"

Kurenai was about to tell her student that it was a village secret, but before she could Naruto spoke up saying, "No Kiba, it wasn't. I'll tell you and Hinata about it later, but right now we need to help her."

Finding an empty space proved easy with most of the crew currently looting the ship of the defeated pirates. Arriving in the mess hall, Kurenai was able to place Hinata on one of the tables. Seeing some bulges under the girl's pants leg, the jonin took out a kunai and said, "I hope you brought spares Hinata" before carefully cutting off the fabric.

The sight that greeted the jonin was unpleasant to say the least. Almost the entire leg was swollen, with two bulges, one on the girl's thigh the other on her shin, stood out at least an inch in opposite directions. It was obvious on deck that the girl's leg had been broken, Kurneai had just hoped it was not this severe. Clearing her mind from all distractions, Kurenai told the girl, "Hinata, your leg has been broken in at least two different places. We're lucky that the bone didn't break the skin, but this is too advanced for my limited knowledge of medical jutsu, we need to do this the old fashion way. I'm going to raid the first aid kit for supplies, then we need to set the bones. I'm not going to lie, it will hurt. Naruto," the boy's head picked up, "you're going to have to hold her down."

Once Kurenai had returned, she laid out the materials needed for the cast, some wood to make a splint to keep the leg straight, medical tape to keep the wood in place, some rolls of cotton to keep the cast comfortable, some rolls of plaster and a bowl of water. Clearing her throat, the woman began, "Okay Hinata, I don't have much experience with this, so I need you to use your eyes to tell me how to line up the bones." The girl nodded her head, by know most of the swelling had gone down, but her leg was extremely painful. Activating her Byakugan, Hinata nodded her head ready to begin.

Kurenai was right, setting the bones was extremely painful. Every time the woman moved the bone a centimeter back into place, Hinata tried to jump away in pain. It was only due to Naruto using all of his strength to hold her down that the girl didn't further damage her leg. Once both bones were set, Kurenai went to work on the splint and cast. It was a tedious process, unrolling a single strip of plaster, wetting it, and placing it on the girl's leg, but after nearly an hour the cast was finished and dry. "Well," the sensei began, "looks like we're done here. Don't get your leg wet and take it easy and we should get you properly fixed up when we get back to the village." The girl nodded her head in thanks. "Naruto, go ahead and help Hinata back to her bed, she needs the rest." Naruto nodded, carefully lifting up the girl in order to avoid her broken limb. Once alone, Kurenai had time to reflect on the day's events. Two of her students had made their first kills, she would have to talk with them about it later. Her third student had been gravely injured. To top it all off, Naruto was either going to have to lie to his friends or tell them the truth about the Kybui, she didn't know which option was worse.

Kurenai was broken from her thoughts when Naruto walked back into the mess hall. "So," the jonin began, "you're going to tell them about the fox?"

Naruto nodded his head, "They're my friends Kurenai-sensei, they deserve to know the truth."

The woman sighed before saying, "Okay, we'll talk about this after dinner, but only to Kiba, Akamaru, and Hinata. Even if you're sharing it willingly, this is still a village secret, our clients and the ship's crew don't need to know about it."

The boy nodded his head, before he walked into the kitchen and grabbed a cinnamon bun. Kurenai raised an eyebrow and said, "I didn't think you like those."

The boy shrugged his shoulders and said, "Not really, but it isn't for me. They're Hinata's favorite, after today I think she needs a treat when she wakes up."

Kurenai only watched her student walk away, a smile on her lips. 'Maybe that boy finally noticed how much that girl loves him.'

* * *

That Night

The two sisters had opted to go to bed early that night, mental exhausted by what they heard happen. The Captain and his crew had decided to celebrate on deck, the men were thankful to not be seriously injured in the attack. The captured rum also gave cause for celebration. Once more, Kurenai and her team were gathered in the empty mess hall. After helping Hinata sit down, Kurenai said, "After today, we have somethings to talk about. Kiba, Naruto, you two had your first kill today."

The room was silent for a moment before Kiba spoke up. "I didn't have time to think about it then, we were still in the fight against the pirates. After everything calmed down, I threw up. I know that I had to do it, to protect our clients and to protect my friends, but it didn't make it any easier to accept what I've done."

After Kiba finished speaking, Naruto looked down as he spoke, his voice made it sound he was slightly discussed with himself, "I didn't throw up. I grew up in the red light district, I had the A-ranked mission to Wave country before this, I've seen things that would give Kiba and Hinata nightmares. I know that those pirates have done similar things to other people in the past, and that if we didn't stop them they would continue to do so in the future, but as Kiba said, it doesn't make it any easier."

"Good," Kurenai said, "you two just killed someone. Their future, their dreams, those don't matter anymore because you put an end to it. Maybe you won't feel quite as strongly about taking a life later, but as long as you feel some level of regret that is fine. It will be a problem when you can end someone's life without feeling anything." Seeing understanding on all three of her genin's faces, Kurenai asked, "Now that that's out of the way, I understand you have some questions."

Kiba nodded his head while Hinata asked, "Ano, what was the red chakra that Naruto was using earlier?"

Kurenai sighed before saying, "That is a village secret that I can't tell you," seeing her genin about to protest Kurenai held up her hand as she said, "but Naruto can if he wishes."

Naruto looked at his teammates. He trusted them with his life, they were his friends, they deserved to know how much danger they were in just being around him. Steeling his nerves, Naruto begin, "Kiba, Hinata, what do you know about my birthday?"

Confused, Kiba said, "It's the day the Ninetailed Fox attacked the village, but what's that got to do with the red chakra?"

Instead of answering Naruto said, "Yeah, the Fox attacked and the Fourth Hokage killed it, but was mortally wounded in the fight. That's what they taught us in the academy right?" Naruto paused as his two friends nodded their heads, both sporting confused faces. "Except they lied. The Fox and the rest of the Tailed Beasts are made of Chakra, you can't kill chakra. Instead he sealed the Fox away, but that much chakra can't be contained in an object, you need something living, something young enough for it's chakra coils to adapt."

The moment Naruto had feared came as Hinata's eyes light up and she asked, "The Fourth sealed the Fox into you, didn't he Naruto-kun?" Naruto only nodded his head, causing an immediate reaction in the other genin. Hinata burst into tears as she hugged Naruto, burying her face in his chest. Kiba however stood up, turned around, and launched a fist into his seat, the wood breaking apart. Seeing her students actions, Kurenai immediately yelled, "Kiba Inuzuka, just what do you think you are doing?"

"Well what do you expect Kurenai-sensei? In the academy we were told that the Fourth was this hero who could do the impossible, but in reality he was a jerk who ruined my friend's life!" Akamaru barked his agreement to what his master said.

Naruto was dumbfounded as he asked, "You two don't care about the Fox?" Hinata managed to look the boy in the eyes, a small smile gracing her face as she said, "Naruto-kun is Naruto-kun, I know you're not evil."

"She's right man," Kiba said, "so you have an ancient evil sealed in your gut, doesn't change who you are. Still think the Fourth is a jerk for doing this to you."

Naruto couldn't believe it. He had told these two his darkest secret, and they hadn't treated him any differently. Kurenai also smiled as she said, "It's good you two know the difference between the scroll and the kunai (A/N: I've read that line so many times, it feels good to finally write it!). Now Naruto, so we know if there is any problems with the seal, I need to ask if you've used the Kyubi's power before."

"A few times," the blond said, "you all saw the last time. The second time was during the A-ranked mission during the bridge battle. The first time was when I was a kid. I saw some bullies picking on a girl and tried to get them to stop," everyone, save Naruto, saw Hinata blush, "anyway that didn't work. They turned their attention on me while the girl got dragged away. After a while I got angry and yelled at them to stop, but I felt a rush of power. The bullies looked scared and ran away, good thing too since I blacked out soon afterwards. Funny thing was that I heard two voices right after I yelled."

Kurenai looked concerned as she asked, "What did the voices say?"

Naruto gained a thoughtful look as he said, "The first one said 'I'm free!' while the second one said 'Get back here'."

"Well that is a little disconcerting, we should probably have Hokage-sama check the seal when we get back. Now Kiba you may not like what the Fourth did, but consider this. The man would never ask someone to do something he wouldn't do himself. He didn't have a child himself so he probably wouldn't ask anyone in the village to give up their own kid, so he had to pick an orphan, Naruto was the only kid born that day that was orphaned."

"Yeah, about that Kurenai-sensei," Naruto began while he scratched the back of his head, "I have a theory that might explain a few things, although it sounds pretty crazy."

Kurenai smiled as she said, "Well I think after today we could use some entertainment, so let's hear what you've got Naruto."

Moving Hinata's arms, as she was still hugging him, Naruto reached into his supply pouched and pulled out a scroll. Unraveling it to a kanji that read "storage", the boy pushed some chakra into the scroll, causing a book and several file folders to appear. Clearing his throat the boy began, "The night I learned about my reassignment, this was left on my doorstep." The boy held up a book titled _A History of the Hokages. _"It's quite an interesting book, even if it wasn't complete," To illustrate his point, Naruto showed his teammates and sensei several of the blank pages in the back, "but this is what got my attention." he said as he flipped one more page.

The team was shocked at what they saw. Covering the entire page was a black and white photo captioned, "The Fourth Hokage and an unidentified ANBU the day of his coronation." The photo seemed to catch the two unaware. It was a shot from the waist up, showing the Fourth Hokage in the mist of making out with one of his female subordinates. The woman was wearing the standard ANBU uniform and had long hair, the only detail of her face visible was her lips as her mask, a wolf with strange markings, was slanted in such a way that her nose and eyes were covered.

Seeing that his team was slowly recovering from shock, Naruto continued, "The next day I looked in the village archives. It's standard policy to declassify ANBU files a decade after the person's death. I started looking at the files that became public when I turned three, cause, well you know." Naruto pulled out one of the folders, opening it to reveal a color photo of the wolf-masked ninja, showing the woman had long red hair during her life. "The file gave her age as 24 at death, but birth certificates don't have pictures. Instead, I started looking at the academy class entrance photos five years after she would have been born. It took a while but I found this" Naruto opened another photo, this time of a bunch of kids not much younger than they were. Kiba immediately pointed at a wild looking girl in the bottom corner saying, "Hey that's my mom." Hinata also looked and pointed out two identical boys, "And that's my father and uncle." Now Naruto pointed to a red haired girl in the back row, looking like she wanted to disappear, "And here is our mystery ANBU, when I looked up the class list it said her name was Kushina Uzumaki."

Silence rained through the room, until Kurnai asked, "You think that she was your mother?" Naruto nodded his head as he said, "Would make sense, she died the day I was born, making me an orphan, and we also have a photo of someone that could be her making out with the Fourth. We also have this." Naruto again pointed to the class photo, this time to a boy with blond, spiky hair, "Minato Namikaze was in the same class. After I found that out, I looked at the mission logs." Naruto opened the final folder, "After they both made Chunin, they went on a lot of joint missions. After Minato became Hokage, Kushina was always assigned as part of his watch, until the January of the year that she died."

Once more the room was silent until Kiba said, "Okay, let me get this straight. You think that this Kushian Uzumaki, who may or may not be your mom, spent a lot of time with Minato Namikze when they were younger. She was a strong woman, able to make ANBU, and continued to spend time with the man who would become the Fourth Hokage."

Hinata continued, saying, "And they may or may not have been in a relationship, which may or may not have resulted in Kushian getting pregnant with you as she was on leave nine months before you were born. As Kurenai-sensei said, Minato-sama wouldn't have used someone else's kid if he could help it. So that would mean…"

Naruto nodded, then said, "but it's just a theory, a crazy one at that."

The genin then heard a great crash and turned to see their sensei in a heap on the floor. Kurnai quickly recomposed herself, coughing to clear her throat before she said, "Crazy or not the facts line up in a convincing manner. When we get back to the village we should probably talk to Hokage-sama about this."

Everyone nodded before Kiba asked, "One last thing, when is Naruto going to realize Hinata called him 'Naruto-kun'?"

Immediately Naruto asked, "Hinata called me what?" but before anyone could answer said girl fainted for the first time in a long time. "Great, now who is going to help get her to cabin?"

"Thank you for volunteering Naruto." Kurenai said with a smile before she and Kiba walked away.

Naruto only sat still, as once again Hinata's arms moved with a mind of their own, encircling the boy. Looking down at his friends face, the boy thought, 'She is really cute when she does this though.'

* * *

It had been a week since the pirate incident. Thankfully nothing else of note had happened. Hinata had mostly stayed in the cabin with the two sisters, her leg and seasickness making it difficult to move out of the bed. It was on this day that the Captain was looking to the Southeast with his telescope. He smiled as he saw two or three small islands, sandbars really, then off to the side of said islands was a small dock with a clothing line next to it. Seeing the jonin relaxing on deck, the Captain called out, "Well Kurenai-san, it appears this is where we part ways."

"What do you mean Captain, are we close to Nippon?" the jonin asked, confused by the Captain's statement.

"Aye, we're close alright." The man began. "In a number of hours we're going to be within rowing distance of a small village. Once your group sets foot on land, my end of the deal is complete."

"I believe the agreement was that you would ferry my clients home, then you would take me and my genin back to the Elemental Nations." Kurenai said, clearly irritated.

"Yes that was the initial agreement, but the situation changed once your student killed the Heartless One-eye. Now me and my crew need to sail south in order to report his death, cash in his bounty, and return any stolen property. The voyage itself is long, probably going to take the majority of nine months, on top of that the political red tape could tie us up for more than a year. You want to get back home quickly to get your girl's leg looked at? It would be faster to journey over land and charter a vessel from the Ryoshima Coast."

Kurenai was upset, having to travel in a foreign land, but could see the truth in the Captains words. She didn't want to hold her genin back, if they were forced to spend a year without any new missions they were sure to become stagnant in their abilities. She also considered Hinata, while she did her best to set the bones she was no med-nin, if something was wrong her leg would heal incorrectly, ending her shinobi career. Sighing, Kurenai said, "I'll make my team aware of the plan."

* * *

Getting in the row boat proved to be a bit of a challenge. The two sisters were sitting in the back along with Kurenai. Kiba sat in the exact middle of the boat, but was constantly jostled by the two rowers from the Captain's crew. Naruto took the sole seat in the front, with a blushing Hinata sitting on his lap. By the time the row boat had pulled alongside the dock it was getting dark, but to the surprise of many, someone was waiting.

"Oh Camille and Camellia, so nice to see you again. Who are your friends?" asked an old woman, who was wearing a purple robe tied closed with a yellow sash. While the woman's hair was short, what got the groups attention was that she was balancing an orange on top of her head.

"Hello Mrs. Orange," the older of the sisters said, "the woman and the kids are part of a shinobi team we hired to take us back here while the men are part of the crew of the ship we used to sail across the sea."

Turning to Kurenai, Mrs. Orange said, "Thank you for looking after these two, they can get into quite a bit of trouble if they're left alone."

Kurenai smiled as she and Naruto helped the sisters and Hinata off the boat. "It's no trouble, they asked for help and we're giving it to them." Once everyone was on shore, the two men began to row back to the ship. "I hope not to sound rude," Kurenai began, "but as you can see we need to get home so one of my students can get the proper medical attention." For the first time, Mrs. Orange noticed the cast around Hinata's leg and asked the girl, "Oh you sweet little thing, what happened to your leg?"

Hinata was a bit flustered with a stranger being concerned for her well being just said, "It was broken during a pirate attack."

"What!" the old woman exclaimed, before she turned her gaze to Kiba and Naruto. "And just where were you two when this happened?"

"They were fighting their own battles. I don't know how it is here, but where we come from, woman are just as capable fighters as men." Kurenai said, clearly annoyed.

"Oh, sorry. Please forgive this old woman, I'm used to dealing with the people of the village, we so rarely get visitors."

"It's fine," Kurenai said, "now if you could just direct us to the Ryoshima Coast so we could get home we will be on our way."

"Oh, I'm afraid that will be a problem." Mrs. Orange said. "There is only one way into the village, but due to the increase of monster sightings Susano blocked the pass with a massive boulder." Here the woman pointed to the village's exit, which as she said was currently blocked by a massive rock. Ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem, Kurneai and her students could just chakra walk to the other side. However, with Hinata's broken leg, this was not an option. Thinking that it was best to wait with the Captain in the south, Kurenai turned back to the boat, only to find it was already almost back to the ship.

Seeing the woman's distress, Mrs. Orange said, "Don't worry dearie, you and your students can stay with me until we get this mess sorted out."

"Thank you, but I do not want to impose."

"Think nothing of it, I'm always happy to help those in need. Plus I just know you will love my Cherry Cakes, nobody makes them quite like I do."

"Mrs. Orange," Camellia began, "can me and sister go up to the tree?"

"Sure you can little one, why don't you bring your new friends with you?"

"Okay." the little girl said as she tugged on Kiba's sleeve.

* * *

The group from Konoha followed the sisters through the village, passing a sake stand, a small house, and a house with a large orange on its roof on the left side of the path, while on the right was a small turnip field. Curiously, no one was outside. When Naruto asked why, Camille said, "It's a late, they are probably inside their homes having dinner."

After walking up the hill past the village, the group came to a split in the pat, if they continued going straight they would have walked up a small mountain. Instead the sisters lead the group to the left path. Once they were past the large trees, the group from Konoha stopped in their tracks at seeing a humongous Sakura tree. Seeing the group stop, Camellia pulled Kiba's sleeve saying, "Come on, we're almost there!"

The group followed the sisters up the small path until they came to a stone Torii. While everyone walked through the opening, Naruto, wanting to stay with the group, walked around the right leg. Once the group was in the clearing, the shinobi saw the large rope that encircled the tree, as well as the hollow space underneath that contained the statue of a man holding a large, two-edged sword. Here the sisters stopped, and as one, bowed to the tree saying, "Thank you great Konohana Tree for seeing us safely home."

"So what's so special about this tree anyway?" Kiba asked.

"This tree was planted over a hundred years ago by our ancestors to help ward off evil. Since then the tree's roots have spread all over Nippon. Come now, it is getting late, we should head back to the village and rest." Camille said, which caused her sister to jump up and down saying, "yay, cherry cakes!" which caused the rest of the group to laugh at the girl's antics.

* * *

Mrs. Orange was right, the group never had cherry cakes that were as good before. After meeting the woman's husband, Mr. Orange a bald man with a long white beard who wore a blue robe and also had an orange on his head, the group was able to enjoy their dinner. After he had helped to clean up a bit, Naruto once more unsealed the wolf statue. He did not notice he had company until he heard Mr. Orange asked, "Where did you get that statue of Amaterasu?"

By now the rest of the Konoha group were curious as to what the old man meant, and had similar questions when Naruto ask, "What is an Amaterasu?"

"Not a what," Mr. Orange began, "a who. She is the greatest kami." Seeing the confused looks from the shinobi, the old man grumbled as he said, "Ah, you foreigners know nothing of this. Hang on a second." After the man looked through his drawer, he came back to the group with a medium sized scroll. "If you're stuck in this country for the foreseeable future, you may want to learn a bit about our customs."

Once the man went outside to the sake stand, Naruto unrolled the scroll. Reading the tale of the wolf goddess, each person was amazed at the feats. From battling Orochi to almost being eaten by the Water Dragon, each shinobi was entrapped by the story until the very end where Amaterasu went back to the Celestial Plain. "Well that is certainly an entertaining story, but right now we should all get some rest. Goodnight."

While everyone else was quietly sleeping inside, Naruto was sitting on the porch looking over the scroll once more. He was looking over the battle against Ninetails when he heard a voice ask, "I thought I told you to get to sleep." Turning around, the boy was met with his sensei impatiently tapping her foot. "Sorry Kurenai-sensei, I just couldn't get the story out of my head, little weird they have a Ninetails here as well."

"I'll admit, it does seem a little strange, but is that really the reason you keep looking at that scroll?"

The boy slowly rolled the scroll back to the beginning, showing a full portrait of the wolf goddess. "I can't explain it, but I feel like I've seen these markings before," the boy said as he traced the red marks on the wolf's head with his fingers, "and before you say it, I know they are the same as on my statue, but I feel like I've seen them somewhere else."

The boy was silent for a moment before he said to himself, "It couldn't be." Taking out his storage scroll, Naruto opened his book. Just as he was about to get to the page he wanted, something strange happened. A white wolf appeared out of nowhere, grabbing both Naruto's book and the scroll in its mouth before running up the hill. "Hey, come back here you stupid wolf!" the boy said as he chased after the animal.

Naruto was loud enough to wake his other teammates. Kiba soon appeared at the door and asked Kurenai, "Sensei what's going on, where's Naruto going?" Hinata soon appeared behind him, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Naruto was reading the scroll again when a white wolf came out of nowhere and grabbed it. Being who he is, Naruto decided to chase after it. We should probably go after him."

"Ano," Hinata began before yawning, "doesn't this sound a bit like how the story began?"

"Don't be silly Hinata, that's just a fairy tale." Kurenai said.

* * *

The team quickly caught up to Naruto, who was still chasing after the wolf. The boy thought that he had gotten lucky as the wolf took the left path, which would dead end at the Konohana tree. As the group approached the Torii, all were shocked to the wolf simply disappear. While Kurenai and two of her genin stopped in their tracks, Naruto keep going forward. Once he stepped across the Torii, he to disappeared.

"Kurenai-sensei," Hinata asked, "where did Naruto-kun go?"

Before the jonin could respond, Naruto suddenly appeared from the Torii. Turning around, the boy said, "You all have got to see this." Grabbing Kiba's hand, Naruto pulled him and Akamaru through the Torii, all three disappearing. Naruto then repeated the process with Kurenai and Hinata.

When the entire squad was through, they were shocked by what they saw. Now only had the sky become darker, but the hollow space beneath the tree was shining, almost inviting the shinobi to come closer. What really shocked the group was when a woman appeared out of thin air. She had long black hair, but what she wore almost gave Kiba a nosebleed was that instead of a shirt or a kimono, the woman's bust was covered by a pair of leaves, a long pink skirt held up by a small piece of rope covered the woman from the waist down. Shocking the group even more, the woman said, "I am Sakuya, the spirt of this tree. Who might you be?"

Deciding to speak before any of her male students could say something stupid, Kurenai said, "My name is Kurenai Yuhi, and these are my genin. We did not mean to disturb you Miss Sakuya, we were simply chasing after an animal that stole something from one of my students."

The spirit lightly laughed as she said, "I am not bothered Kurenai-san. I believe I know what animal you are thinking of, you should be able to find her underneath my tree, it is a good thing the land has changed or else your one student would be unable to accompany you. Farewell and may the fresh scent of flowers protect you always." With that the woman once more faded from existence.

Hinata had a soft smile on her face as she said, "Just fairy tales, huh sensai?"

Kurenai pinched the bridge of her nose as she said, "I don't want to hear it Hinata, I will leave you here while me and the boys get the book back. Am I understood?" The girl nodded her head, not wanting to be left behind.

"Well what are we waiting for, let's go get me book back!" With that Naruto charged underneath the tree, followed shortly by Kiba and Akamaru while Kurenai helped Hinata limp along.

* * *

Once the group was able to see again, they expected to looking at an underground tunnel. Instead they were in a large grass field with a steep drop off, surrounded by the same night sky they had seen in Sakuya's clearing. As the group marveled at the place around them, Naruto spotted his target in the distance. "Come on, let's go get that wolf!" Once more, the team was off.

It was a bit of a run for the group. After crossing a bridge, no one questioned how it got there, the group was on another field, this one ended with a broken bridge, however what irritated Naruto the most was that the wolf was calmly sitting on the other side, the book and scroll still in it's mouth.

"Well Naruto, looks like this is it."

"But why Kurenai-sensai, we're so close."

"Naruto look," the genjustus user began, "I understand that the book is really important to you, but you need to look at the situation. The only way across is destroyed, and it's not like you're going to fall into some river. That is a chasm that we don't know what will happen if we fall down. What are you going to do, jump it?"

"I will if I have to!" Before Kurenai could stop her student, Naruto had already taken a running start and was about to jump over the broken bridge. Right before he was about to jump, the world stopped moving for Naruto and became sepia tone. The boy saw a black substance appear on the broken bridge, before it splashed outwards, revealing a repaired bridge, on which Naruto promptly face planted.

"Naruto are you okay?" a concerned Hinata asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." The boy said before looking up. When he did lift his head, he saw the white wolf staring back at him, laughter in it's eyes. Instantly he sprang up yelling, "I've got you now you old fleabag!" and chased after the theft.

The rest of his team sighed before Kiba said, "Come on, let's go make sure he doesn't get in anymore trouble."

* * *

The group soon encountered their next problem. Once more the wolf had separated itself from the group, but this time it was by a body of suspended water. To the right of where the river started was a giant hill, to the left was a large rock with some kanji carved into it.

"The River of Heavens." Kiba read aloud. "You know, this is sounding more and more like that story Mr. Orange showed us."

"That maybe Kiba, but how are we going to get Hinata across this? We can't get her cast wet."

"I don't think that's going to be a problem Kurenai-sensei," Naruto said as he dipped his hand in the river, "it acts like water, it feels like water, but it's not water, look." Here Naruto's prankster instinct took over as he splashed Kurenai in the face with his handful. The jonin found out the boy was right, it felt like she had gotten splashed in the face, yet she was completely dry, she was still angry as shown when she told the blond, "Do something like that again, and I will drown you, are we clear?" Naruto nodded his head furiously.

"Okay, so we aren't getting wet, but Hinata can't swim with her cast."

"I've got it this time sensei." Kiba said as he took out a length of ninja wire from his pouch. Tying one end off to a fence by the water's edge, the boy then swam to the other side, the wolf running though the next doorway, and pulled the wire taunt. "There, now Kurenai-sensei swims across and we hold the line up for Naruto and Hinata."

Impressed with her student's quick thinking, Kurenai quickly followed the plan. Once she reached the other side, grabbed one end of the ninja wire with Kiba and called out, "Okay you two, let's get a move on."

Naruto nodded, then turned to Hinata. The girl was shaking, obviously scared. Hoping to calm her fears, the boy said, "Hinata, just relax." He then picked her up, both face to face and Naruto trying to avoid thoughts about certain anatomical features Hinata possessed that were currently pressed against his chest. "Okay, now just put your arms around me," the girl swung her arms around the boy's neck, almost choking him, "now just close your eyes and we'll get across in a flash." As Naruto grabbed the line and descended into the river, Hinata buried her head in the crook of his neck, just wanting to get across the river. The next thing she knew, she heard Naruto say, "Hey Hinata, we're across the river now. You can let go, unless you want to hang on for awhile."

Looking up, the girl saw that she was indeed on the other side with the rest of her team. While she wouldn't admit it directly, she didn't want Naruto to let go, so instead she said, "Thank you Naruto, but I'm still a little tired, could you carry me a little ways?"

"Sure no problem." He then moved Hinata so that he was carrying Hinata bridal style as he figured he couldn't give he a piggy back ride with her leg. He didn't notice Hinata gain a slight blush while she thought, 'don't faint, don't faint, don't fain' over and over again.

* * *

The other side of the doorway did not have any more fields, instead it appeared to be a mountain. Luckily for Team Eight there were stone steps along the path, although no one knew how long it would take. After twenty minutes they leveled off, to which Hinata said she could walk on her own. After crossing a small bridge, the group came to another set of stairs, these much steeper, but they could see they ended at a cave. Not wanting to hobble up any more steps, Hinata turned to Naruto and asked, "Naruto, could you please.."

She didn't get to finish her sentence as Naruto once more picked her up and was carrying her bridal style up the steps. 'Oh, they are just so cute together.' Kurenai thought, while in his head Kiba said, 'Man, Naruto is so whipped and they aren't even dating yet!'

Once the group made it to the top of the stairs they followed the path into the cave. They were awestruck at the massive statue of a man holding a large sword. The celling of the cave was nonexistent, revealing the night sky and a constellation of what appeared to be a rat. They were interrupted from their thoughts when they heard a loud thud. Turning around, the group saw that the way out was now blocked by a gate made of large wooden timbers. However that was not the most shocking thing.

From out behind some large rocks the white wolf appeared, however its appearance changed. It still had the scroll and book in its mouth, but now there was a multitude of red lines around its face and body, as well as what could be described as wings on its shoulders and ankles. On the wolf's back was a green spinning disc surrounded by red flames. As the group took in the wolf's new features, it spat out the scroll and book at Naruto's feet. The scroll opened to the painting of the wolf goddess, the book to the photo of the Fourth and the ANBU. Naruto looked at the scroll, then the book, then to the goddess in front of him. He repeated the cycle several times while thinking, 'No, this isn't possible. I know that my theory with the Fourth is crazy, but this is just outright ridiculous. It's like a story someone with way too much time on their hands would make up, it can't be possible.' These thoughts continued until Naruto said, in a very shaky voice, "Mom?"

No one on his team had time to wonder why the boy was calling an ancient goddess mom when a strong breeze filled the room. The wind, and a number of leaves, surrounded the wolf goddess. When the wind died down, standing in the place of the wolf was the ANBU from the photograph. The woman reached up and took off her mask, revealing the face of Kushina Uzumaki. The cave was silent for a moment before the red head said, "Hi Sochi."

Naruto wanted to run and give this woman a hug, he was no longer alone in the world. However, his sensei put a hand on his shoulder to stop him running off as she said, "I may not have been close to her, but I knew Kushina Uzumaki well enough. How do we know you're actually my student's mother and not just someone pretending to be?"

"Little Kur-chan is that you?" the sun goddess asked. "I remember seeing you playing with little Asuma-kun in the Hokage tower. You were dating him when you were chunin until Asuma left to join the Twelve Guardians. Has he come back to the village yet? I bet if he has you're sleeping with him on an almost weekly basis."

Blushing at what the woman had revealed, Kurenai quietly mumbled, "Yeah, that's Kushina alright."

The sun goddess was happy that they knew who she was, then she noticed the Hyuga glaring at her. "Do you have a question for me?"

Using the patented "Hyuga Death Stare" for once in her life, Hinata asked, "Why did you leave Naruto-kun alone?"

The goddess visible deflated as she said, "For the past thirteen years, I didn't know just how close he was."

Confused, Kiba asked, "And just what do you mean by that lady?"

"You all read my tale right?" Everyon nodded. "Then you know I had to wait over a hundred years until I was called to defend Nippon. As you can imagine, spending any amount of time, much less a hundred years, gets boring really quick. So after awhile, I literally let my mind wonder while I left my body. I thought I was in another dimension when I met Minato-kun, but I guess I just went across the sea. I spent thirteen years away from my son, I can't make those up but I can be there for him now."

Before anyone could stop him again, Naruto bolted across the space between the two parties. The goddess expected the boy to be angry with her, to hit her, and she would have accepted it. Instead, the boy hugged her, buried his face in her stomach while he said, "I'm not alone anymore" over and over. Returning the hug, the woman said, "Oh Sochi, you were never alone, you had your team before me and I'm sure the Old Monkey took care of you."

Naruto pulled away slightly as he asked, "Old Monkey?"

"You know, Hiruzen, the Third Hokage." The information of this nickname caused everyone in the room to laugh. "Now, are there any more questions?"

"Yeah, what are we supposed to call you?" Naruto asked.

The red head tapped her chin three times before snapping her fingers and said, "Just call me Kushina, we can just have my title be Amaterasu."

Kurenai voiced her opinion as she asked, "Is it really alright for you to just decide that by yourself?"

Kushina gave the woman a deadpanned look as she said, "Do you really want to argue with an all-powerful sun goddess?" Kurenai quickly said "no" as she was waving her arms around in front of her. Kushina smiled as she said, "That's what I thought, dattebane!" The sun goddess then put both hands over her mouth while thinking, 'well that's one advantage of being a wolf, I didn't have this damn verbal tick.'

At hearing what his mother said, Naruto instantly burst out laughing, as did the rest of the assembled shinobi. Once everyone had calmed down, Kushina knelt down by her son. "As I said, there's no way to change the fact I haven't been there for you when I should have been, but there's nothing stopping me from helping you now. There is so much I want to teach you."

"Wait you mean?"

"The brush god techniques like from in my story, yes. That and so much more. But there are some conditions. First, you have to earn the teachings, that means finding all of the constellations like I did."

"No problem," the boy said, "it wouldn't have felt right if they were just given to me."

"That's good. The other thing is you can't use them while you're a human."

"WHAT?"

"Calm down son. As I was saying, to be able to use the brush you have to be connected to nature. As a human you're about as far removed from nature as you can be while still being alive. Why do you think I never used the brush when I was in the Elemental Nations?"

"Because you hadn't learned them yet." Kurenai spoke up.

Kushina gave the younger woman a look before saying, "Three days after Asuma became chunin, do you want me to say more?"

Kurenai instantly blushed as she said, "No, no that's enough, I'll just be quite now."

Satisfied with her work, Kushina turned her attention back to Naruto as he asked, "So how am I going to learn the brush god techniques if I'm human?"

"Well you're my son aren't you? All we need to do is turn you into a wolf."

"Is that even possible?" Kiba asked.

"Of course it's possible. It may have been during my out of body experience, but Naruto still has all of my DNA, we just need to jumpstart part of it, but there is some risk involved."

Naruto looked at his stomach as he said, "The Kyubi."

Kushina nodded her head as she said, "Right, based on the story you told, and before you ask I've been keeping my eye on you since you left the Hokage's office, I would guess that the Kyubi's mind is gone, but its power remains and might influence you. Knowing this, do you still want to go through with this?"

Naruto was silent for a moment before he said, "I want to learn from you."

Kushina smiled as she said, "Okay, this might tickle a bit." Kushina tapped her son's forehead and the room was filled with a bright flash. When the rest of Team Eight could see again, Naruto was gone. In his place was a black wolf slightly smaller than Kushina in her wolf form. The wolf also had her wing-like appendages, just smaller. Running along the wolf's body was a multitude of orange lines, again similar to Amaterasu's. Floating above the wolf's back was an red spinning disk bearing the Uzumaki clan symbol, an orange ring of fire surrounded it.

Everyone in the cave stared at the wolf for a moment before Hinata asked, "Naruto?" To which the wolf barked. "Yeah that's him alright." Kiba said.

"You understand him?" Kurenai asked.

"Well he's an Inuzuka, they're pretty much born knowing how canines speak." Kushina said.

As Kushina was talking, Hinata slowly made her way over to Naruto. Kneeling down, she hesitantly reached out her hand and scratched his behind his ear. Naruto stood stock still for a second before he felt immense pleasure behind he ear, then started shaking uncontrollable moving his hind foot. Seeing this, all Hinata could think was 'kawaii.'

Smiling at her son, Kushina said, "Okay enough of that, Naruto. It's time for your first lesson. So first off, call up the canvas and trace the constellation."

Naruto tilted his head in confusion, almost causing Hinata to glob him once more. Sighing, Kushina said, "It's like using your chakra."

Naruto nodded and did as instructed. To his mild surprise, the world turned sepia tone. Looking up, Naruto saw the constellation, but didn't know how to trace it. Following his instinct, the boy moved his tail and to his surprise, a large transparent brush-like tail appeared in the sky, mirroring the boy's movements. After he finished tracing the rat, there was a great flash.

* * *

When the group opened their eyes, it appeared they were floating in the sky, off in the distance around them a number of mountains could be seen. What captured their attention was the small rat with red markings along its body. Strapped to the rat's side was a small sheath, with a sword handle being visible. When he saw the small sword, Naruto thought, 'Well it is rat sized.' The boy-turned-wolf was then surprised when the rat used its mouth to pull the sword out, with the humongous blade easily being longer than anyone present. After a few slashed with the blade, the rat then settled in front of the group, resting on the pommel.

"Well, well, well it appears mother Amaterasu has had another child, and he's brought along some friends. I am Tachigami, the keeper of the power slash, and who might you be?"

"_My name is Naruto Uzumkai. I only recently found out about kaa-san, but I want to learn as much from her and from the rest of the brush gods as possible so that I may protect those precious to me._"

"Oh, you've got spunk kid, I like that. Use this power well."

A glowing orb then left the body of Tachigami and raced towards Naruto, circling the wolf a few times before merging with his body. Once that was over the group was once more back in the cave. "Great job sochi, you just learned the power slash, now you can use your brush to cut just about anything by drawing a line through it. Why don't you use it to make us an exit?"

Nodding, Naruto once more brought up the canvas. Facing the log gate, the boy made a quick stroke through it, once he was finished and returned back to normal time, the logs suddenly fell over, as if cut in half by a large sword. Happy with her son's work, Kushina said, "Okay, let's get this adventure started!"

"Wait just a minute," Kurenai began, "why did that rat call you his mother? And are you really going to go out dressed in your ANBU uniform?"

"_And how am I supposed to switch back to a human?_" her son asked.

"Well when my dad was severally injured over a hundred years ago, he lost the ability to use the brush so the powers that he had gained minds and bodies of their own. I helped to raise them for close to twenty years, so they all see me as their mother. As for the ANBU uniform, I guess you're right Kur-chan." The read head snapped her fingers, once more the cave was filled with wind as a number of leaves surrounded the woman. Once the air was clear, the shinobi saw that Kushina had changed into a green dress with a white sleeve-less blouse on underneath. "One more thing, please don't tell anyone who I am, I want to enjoy my time with my son without all the hero worship. Plus if we run into a certain bug he will try to go somewhere only one man has the right to feel."

The group sweet dropped at the goddess' statement as they started walking out, until Hinata asked, "Kushina-san, what about Naruto's question?"

"Oh sorry about that, I can be a little forgetful at times. As for changing back, didn't I mention you needed to gain a few more brush god powers to do that?" The woman got her answer when the entire group face planted into the ground. "Whoops, guess it slipped my mind, no matter, we'll just have to get you as many constellations as fast as possible, now let's go."

As the group headed out of the cave and saw the steps going down, she muttered to herself, "great more stairs" however, Naruto heard her and being the good friend that he is, or perhaps having ulterior motives, bit down on the back of the girl's jacket and tossed her onto his back. After a few seconds processing what happened, Hinata smiled down at the wolf as she said, "Thank you for the ride Naruto."

As the group started following the path, Kushina slowed down so that she could talk to Kurenai. Being curious at what she had just seen her son do, the woman asked, "Is my son dating that girl?"

Kurenai sighed as she shook her head saying quietly, "As much as I'm sure she wished they were, right now the two are just friends. But at the end of all of this, who knows."

* * *

**Another chapter done for this story, this one was 23 pages. I didn't get as far along as I wanted, but I felt this was a good stopping point and it'll help give the next chapter some content. I've had to do a bit more research for this story than my other one so far, but I'm still enjoying writing it and I hope you all enjoy reading it. I do have a question for my readers before I sign off, do you think I should change the rating of this story from T to M? I don't plan on this story being as violent as **_**A New Realm **_**or being remotely as suggestive, but the pirate fight was a bit more then I originally intended and I might write similar fight scenes for this story in the future. I've always saw it as a T rating can have a mid-level of violence with no suggestive situations while the M rating can have a high level of violence with a decent amount of suggestive situations. I don't want my stories to get deleted for arbitrary reasons, so let me know what you think I should do.**

**So far we've seen the answers to all of the previous questions, but still more have popped up, including…**

**When will Naruto be able to change back to being a human?**

**How will Nippon react to a sun goddess in disguise?**

**Will Naruto and Hinata become a couple? (if you look at the character filter, you already know the answer.)**

**Find out the answers to these questions and more in the future updates of **_**Son of the Sun**_**! Remember to leave a review if you enjoy the story, and be on the lookout for a new story I'm hoping to start sometime this year.**

**With all of that said, here's acw28 saying, "until next update."**


	4. The Journey Begins

**Hey everyone, it's acw28 here with the next chapter of **_**Son of the Sun**_**!**

**First, let me say sorry for making everyone wait so long. The week after I made my last post I had two major papers due and then finals for my classes shortly afterwards. Then during finals week I ended up catching a cold, lucky for me it didn't get bad until after I was done with the last test. Then my summer class (which has 15 weeks of information crammed into 7 weeks) started, so I've done my best to squeeze in a little writing time here and there. **

**I'm happy that I actually have the time and the drive to write chapter 4. I don't know what it is, but it seems like there are a lot of good Naruto x Okami crossovers on this site that just stop at chapter 3, but I digress. I hope that everyone enjoys this chapter and that it's worth the wait.**

**So I already told a couple people this through private messages, I also posted it in the reviews but I don't know how many people actually read those besides myself, but I don't want to keep getting the same question over and over. Just to be clear, Chibi is not going to appear at any point in this story. I'm basically going to have Naruto take Chibi's place, although I'm not going to follow the plot of Okamiden exactly as I have a few ideas on how I want to change some of the events. I am going to have the rest of the brush gods call Kushina "mother" but I gave my explanation for this last chapter, so only Naruto is going to be Kushina's son by blood.**

**I also got a note from someone saying that I was using the word "sochi" in the wrong context. I'm not going to go back and correct it, it would be a time consuming process that I feel would be better spent writing new content, so instead I'll just mainly use English and mostly only use Japanese for the jutsus.**

**Also, this is just a little thing that I've noticed when I check the traffic stats. My other story, **_**A New Realm**_**, regularly gets over 100 more views than this one, yet this story has more reviews and favorites. Interesting, isn't it?**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to either Okami or Naruto, I'm just someone who has way too much time on their hands between classes.**

* * *

After walking down the mountain and through the doorway, the group where once more at the River of Heavens, only now the towline was washed downstream.

"Well, this is certainly a problem." Kiba said.

"Oh don't worry about it," Kushina then turned to Hinata, "all you have to do is hold on to Naruto tightly."

Hintat nodded her head, then hugged Naruto even tighter and closed her eyes as he started wading in the river. The trip across was just as fast as it had been before, and soon the entirety of Team Eight was back on the other shore, however the entire team was shocked when they witnessed Kushina starting to walk over the water. Seeing the multiple jaws hitting the floor, Kushina said, "You'll catch flies if you keep your mouths open."

"How are you doing that?" Kurenai asked. "You can't water walk in this place,"

"Oh, I'm just using an ancient holy tablet to walk on water," as the group sweat dropped she added, "I also have one that lets me swim through lava."

Once she was fully across Kushina announces, "Okay Naruto, time to get your next brush power."

"_Already, but I just got my first one not even five minutes ago!_"

"He does have a point," Kiba began, "if he gets one power up after another wouldn't it kind of cheapen the entire story, you know making the hero overpowered?"

"Well I guess it can be true, but trust me after the first few brush powers it'll take away until Naruto learns more. Besides these are the basics that will be used throughout the entire journey. Now Hinata, can you get off my son's back so we can climb this hill?"

* * *

Once mother and son had climbed the hill, Naruto noted the next constellation, that of a dragon. Already knowing what to do, the boy-turned-wolf called up the canvas and traced the stars. Instantly Naruto and his mom were once more transport to the realm of the Brush Gods. Here Naruto saw a large dragon fly down from the sky, an orb held in each of its four hands, part of its body was literally a scroll.

"Hello Mother, it appears you have brought another for me to bestow my gift upon. I trust the judgement of Amaterasu. I Yomigami, give to you young pup the power of rejuvenation. Use this tool wisely."

Once more an orb left the body of the brush god, circled around Naruto, then entered his body.

Once both mother and son were back in the real world, Kushina turned to her son and said, "Congratulations Naruto, you've gained the power of rejuvenation. With it you can fix anything that is broken or replace missing things. Among other things, I used it to restore the River of Heavens, but unfortunately we don't have anything to practice with."

"_Hey mom, if the brush can repair broken things, could it also work on people?_"

Kushina slightly tilted her head as she though before she said, "I don't really know son, I never tried to use it that way during my adventure. Now come along, I'm sure your friends are getting tired of waiting for us."

Once back with the rest of the group, Naruto noticed that Hinata was sitting awkwardly on the ground. Remembering what his mother had said, the boy-turned-wolf summoned the canvas. Not sure how to use this new power, Naruto let his instincts guide him as he covered Hinata's broken leg in ink. After his tail was lifted off the canvas, the world stood still for a second, then Naruto heard a quick tune and the ink splashed off of the girl's leg.

No one else in the group noticed Naruto's actions until Hinata felt a warmth flow over her formally broken leg. Activating her Byakugan, Hinata was amazed as she said, "Kurenai-sensai, I don't know how, but my leg is healed!"

While Kiba and Kurenai swarmed Hinata to see if her statement was true, Kushina faced her son as she thought, 'So, I guess the brush can be used heal as well.' Sighing, the goddess said, "Well go ahead and finish the job and cut off her cast."

Naruto gave his mom a look of concern before she said, "Don't worry about hitting Hinata with a power slash, the brush won't hurt anyone. I used it against a few people who were particularly annoying; they didn't get hurt just surprised." Nodding his head, Naruto brought up the canvas again, this time drawing a quick line down Hinata's cast. Once time had resumed, both halves of the cast fell away. While the rest of the team marveled at Hinata's recovery, Naruto noticed that the pants leg of her previously broken limb was significantly shorter that the other one. Being the good friend he was, Naruto decide to correct this problem by using power slash to shorten the other leg.

"EEP!" Hinata jumped at least two feet in the air when she felt something quickly rush by her leg.

"Hinata, what's the matter?" Kiba asked, concerned for his teammate.

"I don't know, I felt something rush by my leg." Hinata then noticed that the one remaining pants leg was resting around her ankle, leaving the girl in a pair of shorts that only reached mid thigh. "Oh, no, what am I going to do about this?"

"What the problem Hinata, just change into a fresh pair when we get back to the house." Were the wise words from her sensei.

"Ano, Sensei these were my only clean pair."

While the group from Konoha were preoccupied by Hinata's recent plight, Kushina once more turned her attention to her son, noticing that he was breathing slightly heavy. Seeing a chance to start her son on the path to getting her grand-puppies, Kushina leaned down and whispered into the wolf's ear, "That girl has some nice legs, doesn't she?"

'_Must, resist, urge, to, howl…._'

"Alright Hinata, we'll just make due for now and you can change your pants when we get a chance to wash our cloths. Until then, let's just be glad that your leg is healed."

"Okay Kurenai-sensei," the girl said aloud, but continued in her head, 'but now I can't snuggle into Naruto-kun's soft fur.'

"Right, well if everyone is done standing around and talking, let's keep moving forward!" Kushina announced, although the group sweat dropped when she put one foot on a large rock and pointed towards the exit.

* * *

The group was almost to the exit when they spotted an odd site. Sitting around a campfire where three green, monkey like figures that also wore green shirts with large sleeves and white, rectangular masks. Two where reclined on the ground while the third was sitting up while playing a flute.

"What are those things?" Kurenai asked.

"Those would be Green Imps, some of the absolute weakest demons you will encounter. Mostly they'll dance around and try to slap you, although occasionally they'll use their flutes as blow guns, but it should be easy enough for you three to take care of on your own."

"You're just going to let them fight against demons on their own?"

"Oh relax Kure-chan, as I said these three are at the bottom of the barrel, they should pose a threat. If at any time it looks like the kids are in over their head I'll take care of it. Well what are you three waiting around for? Hop to it!"

"_Last one to kill their demon pays for my ramen bill!_" Naruto barked as he rushed forward.

"No fair, you got a head start, and there is no way any of us can afford that!" Kiba yelled as he followed the young wolf. Hinata didn't understand what Naruto said, but didn't want to be stuck with whatever Kiba was afraid of and moved forward as well.

The Imps didn't take notice of the three teens until they were practically on top of them. However, once the teens where within sight, all three Imps immediately jumped back and started screeching. The genin didn't hesitate to start attacking. Kiba immediately withdrew a kunai from his pouch, Hianta activated her Byakugan, and Naruto charged forward. Kiba managed to get a quick slice along one of the Imp's arm, causing the demon to shirk and spin backwards. Hinata moved in close and landed a strong kick from her recently healed leg. Naruto was left with the last Imp. Not sure how to fight on all fours, Naruto once more let his instincts guide him as he took a strong stance, then shifted his shoulders, allowing the reflect to slide from his back in an arc, hitting the Imp before returning to the wolf's back.

The short battle continued in this fashion for a brief time until the three genin managed to simultaneously land the finishing blow to their opponents. Hinata moved in quickly and launched a chakra infused palm against her Imp's forehead, Naruto's Imp turn tan, stunned, as Naruto continued to launch his reflector at his opponent. Kiba made a quick past by his Imp, leaving a large gash. Simultaneously, the three Imps let out a shriek and where launched spinning into the air. While Naruto and Hinata remained still, Kiba still had a slight adrenalin rush and leaped, following one of the Imps. The boy quickly became level with one of the demons, then gave one final slash, somehow bisecting his opponent. As the three bodies landed, something odd occurred. The vanquished foes faded from existence, in their place where some wild flowers, some coins, and a blue and purple fang. Instantly all of these things rushed toward Naruto, disappearing once they touched his body.

The group heard someone clapping as Kushina walked forward. "Good job everyone, that was a nice quick battle."

"Not to complain," Kurenai said, "but those were demons? I thought they would be a little tougher."

"As I said Kur-chan, those were the bottom of the barrel. As the journey continues the opponents will become tougher, but the rewards will be greater. Which reminds me." The goddess then walked forward and placed her hands on her son. Pulling back, the woman pulled two glowing orbs from the wolf's body. "This," Kushina began while holding one orb, "is your wallet, it holds all of the yen that you collect from defeating monsters. I'm entrusting this to Hinata since, knowing Uzumaki's, you'd just spend all of it on ramen." Here Kushina lobbed the orb to the shocked girl, instead of merging with her body, the orb instead became an orange purse with lavender swirls. "And this holds the demon fangs that you collected. I'm going to have Kiba hold on to this for you, it just seems appropriate." Again the goddess tossed an orb to a genin, this time the glowing object transformed into a small scroll.

"Geez, a pun on my name, not like I heard that one before."

Before Kurenai could scold her student and ask Kushina not to smite the boy, the group was distracted by a loud yawn. Looking on top of Kiba's head, everyone saw Akamaru close his jaw. The pup then looked around before barking out, "_Hey boss, what did I miss? Where are we, why is Naruto in that weird hedge, and who's the new lady?_"

Kiba sweet dropped ask he asked his canine companion, "Did you literally sleep through a prolonged chase, me swimming across a river, climbing kami knows how many steps, meeting a goddess, who turned out to be Naruto's mother, Naruto being turned into a wolf, and a small battle?"

"_Yes._" The pup had the decency to look sheepish.

"Fine, I'll explain everything later, let's just get back to the house."

* * *

As the group walked back into the regular world, they were once more greeted by Sakuya. Smiling, the tree spirit stated, "Hello again travelers, it appears that you found your thief, or should I say Naruto's mother?"

The group stopped as they processed the words until Kushina yelled, "How did you know Sakuya? I didn't even get a chance to say hi when I ran through, much less tell you about Naruto."

Laughing before she answered, Sakuya said, "I guessed, and it is good to see you me friend."

Face falling at accidently revealing her son's heritage, the sun goddess quickly composed herself before saying, "So if you're here I guess Issun isn't far behind."

"Actually, Issun has taken his responsibility as Celestial Envoy seriously. The last I heard of him, the poncle was in a newly established village."

"Really, wow guess he actually learned some responsibility. Well guess I'll worry about that little bug later. Come one Naruto, time for you to raise the sun."

While he fallowed his mother down the path, Naruto thought, '_Okay, but didn't we just have a conversation about how I don't want to be overpowered?_'

* * *

After walking up the mountain, Naruto sat beside his mother on the observation deck, listening to her explain this new brush power.

"Okay son, the sunrise is a power that you've had all along." Naruto tilted his head in confusion. "I already had this power as the sun goddess, as you're my son, you also have this power." Kushina looked to her son to make sure he was following along, and continued when he nodded his head. "Okay, all you need to do is draw a circle in the sky to command the sun, just do it low on the horizon so that people don't wake up to the middle of the afternoon."

Naruto nodded before doing as instructed. Although slightly skeptical about already having this power, he was still pleased when, after releasing the canvas, the sky began to light up and he heard a rooster call. "Well what can I say, my son's a natural. I couldn't have done a better job myself."

"_What can I say, it runs in the family._"

"That's all well and good," Kiba began, "but can we get back to the Orange's house and get some sleep. Our chase after Naruto's mom took the entire night."

"Kiba, I don't think that would be a good idea." Hinata said.

"What, why not?"

"Think about it Kiba, this is a small village, I'm sure almost everyone saw us arrive yesterday, but not Kushina. If the local population saw us that would lead to some unneeded questions. Since Hinata's leg is healed up, we can chakra walk over the boulder and get out of the village." Kurenai lectured.

"Actually you don't have to waste the energy, think about it. How did I take care of the boulder last time?" the sun goddess asked.

* * *

As the group walked on the path through the village, Kiba pulled out the scroll containing the demon fang. Curious, the boy spoke up as he asked, "So what are these things anyway and why are they so important?"

"Well pup," Kushina said, "as you already know those are called demon fangs. They're a rare commodity as the only way to find them is to defeat a demon. As they are so rare, a lot of nobles like to tie cords around them and use them for jewelry, though you have to be careful as they are some of the sharpest things in the world, as well as one of the strongest things, not even a power slash can leave a scratch."

The conversation stopped as the group stood in front of a large boulder, blocking the path ahead.

"Really," Kushina began, "I will never understand how that man can throw a boulder but can barely manage to swing his sword. Okay son, open up the path and let's begin our journey!"

The group sweat dropped at the goddess' eagerness, none the less Naruto quickly used the celestial brush to power slash the obstacle. Although everyone from Konoha knew what would happen, they were still shocked to see the boulder be sliced in two, then disappeared into thin air.

"Ah, now that brings back memories of my journey. Well, come on, we're burning daylight."

"Um, Kushina-sama, where are we going?" Hinata asked.

"Please Hinata, Kushina is fine. As for the destination, I don't know, but first we need to go through Shinshu Field, there we can look at a map and figure it out."

The group fallowed the path out from between the cliffs and were greeted by a beautiful sight of a rolling field with multiple paths running throughout the land, one went toward a gate where a small house sat while another lead up a steep hill. In the center of the field was a great sakura tree, although not as large as the one in the previous village.

"Such beauty." Kurenai said.

"And more than one path." Kiba stated.

"_So which way do we go?_" Asked Akamaru.

Naruto suddenly stopped walking with the group and stood stock still. Kushina was the first to notice, but before she said anything, the boy-turned-wolf started running away from the group towards the left boundary of the field. "I don't know about the rest of you," Kushina began, "but I think we should follow Naruto, he seems to know where to go." Here the woman pointed to a cave that the group saw Naruto's hind legs disappear into.

* * *

The village of Yakushi was a pleasant little place. The village was founded by Dr. Redbeard as a place for the sick to come and heal. Currently, the village was very small, with only a few multi-story homes build in the cliff side. Despite the small size, Issun liked the place. The people were friendly and always appreciative of his latest masterpiece. That was why the poncle was currently bouncing his way across the village as he yelled out, "Come one, come all. Come get your paintings of the great goddess Amaterasu! Have them in your homes to purify the dwelling, sleep with one under your pillow to keep bad dreams away!" Although he sounded like a salesmen, the wandering artist was sincere in his mission, to spread the tale of the goddess he once traveled with, to help others spread the belief in her existence, and to help keep the land free of evil. Despite his colorful antics, Issun only managed to attract the attention of a small girl.

"Hi there little girl, what's your name?"

"Ayame." The girl wore a tan kimono, with the sleeves gradually turning purple as the arms went further from the body, a purple gourd hung from her neckless, while her black hair was held back by an ornamental orange flower.

"Well Ayame, how about a free picture." Before the girl could answer, the artist had already put the painting, one showing Amaterasu in battle with the fearsome Ninetails, in the girls hands. "I can't believe that people have forgotten so quickly, it's only been nine months since Ammy's great victory. Oh well, no one said the life of a celestial envy would be easy."

"What's a celestial envy?" the little girl asked.

"It's someone who spreads the god's message through art instead of through preaching."

"Is that why you draw the great goddess Amaterasu?"

"That's right kiddo. As people forget, the god and goddess lose their power. It's my duty in life to ensure that the kami aren't forgotten so that they can continue to battle against the evils trying to invade our land."

"Were is Amaterasu now?" Ayame asked.

"She's up on the Celestial Plane, trying to rid it of evil and restore it to how it once was many years ago, hopefully I can visit someday."

"I hope you can someday. Good by Mr. Celestial Envy, thank you for the picture." With that, Ayame began walking back to the house she shared with her mother.

"Thanks kid, but I think it's going to be awhile before I get to see my friend again." As Issun began to reminisce on his previous adventure, he looked up to the sun, seeing a brief image of his four-legged friend. "I wonder what you are up to now you old fur ball." As soon as the sentence left his mouth, Issun found his view of the sky blocked by the mask of a Green Imp. The small being tried to back up so that he could think of a battle plan, only to see his path blocked by another imp. "What are you two doing, I though your kind was already defeated."

Before anyone could attack, a blur rushed between the two Imps, when it passed Issun was gone. A few feet away, Naruto stood in his battle stance, observing his new opponents, a growl escaping his throat. Issun stood on the young wolf's head, shocked at the recent turn of events. Thinking aloud, the artiest said, "Well, you're certainly not Ammy," turning his head, Issun noted the divine instrument on the wolf's back, "but that's a reflector if I ever saw one. So I guess you're related to Ammy in some way, after this way don't we have a chat."

After Issun was done talking, the Imps went on the attack. One hung back while the other tried to slap Naruto. Naruto easily dodged and counter attacked until his opponent turned tan. 'Well let's try something new.' the boy though as he let instant guide him and power slashed his foe. The Imp gave a great scream as it was bisected, as it fell to the ground some yen and a demon fang appeared, but stayed still. As his first opponent was defeated, Naruto turned his attention to the other Green Imp. Not bothering to wait to counterattack, Naruto performed a quick four hit combo on the demon, then another power slash, causing more yen and another demon fang to appear. After the area was cleared of demons, Naruto sat down as Issun said, "Boy, you sure know how to fight, I didn't even have to explain anything, though why are your rewards just sitting there?"

As soon as the words left the little man's mouth, the yen and demon fangs went flying off, only to be collected by a panting Hinata and Kiba.

"Ah man, we missed another fight!" Kiba exclaimed.

"Don't worry Kiba," pant "I'm sure there will be more in the future." Hinata reassured her friend.

"Naruto, don't go running off like that, you're part of a team and you need to stick with your teammates." Kurenai chastised her student. Turning her attention to her still human students, the woman said, "As for you two, unzip your jackets. Somehow it's hotter here than in the Land of Fire and it wouldn't do us any good for you to get heat stroke."

Both students followed their instructions and unzipped their jackets. Kiba revealed he wore a net armor shirt with a grey shirt underneath, while Hinata was left with a blue short sleeve shirt. Unfortunately, the teenage girl's shirt clung to her, showing off her figure, while the neckline was low enough to show a hint of Hinata's developing cleavage. If Naruto was still in his human body, he might have a nose bleed that would but Iruka to shame.

Issun had a different reaction when he saw the girl out of the bulky jacket. After standing still for half a second, the poncle leaped off Naruto's head and with a cry of "Hello busty babe jr.!" tried to hop over to Hinata, but was quickly forced into the ground, rather roughly, by a black paw. Issun could hear Naruto growling behind him. "I wouldn't do that if I were you bug. I haven't been with this group long, but I can tell that you don't want to mess with Naruto's precious people when he's around." Kushina said as she joined the group.

"So the pups name is Naruto? Okay boy, I get the message loud and clear, you're girl is off limits." Unseen by everyone, Hinata blushed at being called Naruto's girl.

Satisfied, Naruto lifted his paw off the celestial envy, allowing Issun to hop back onto Naruto's head. "Not that I'm not thankful for the save, but who are you people, and more importantly how is Naruto related to Ammy?"

"Well, me and my students are from the Land of Fire, which is across the sea, and came here on a mission. Now we're trying to find our way back. The red head with us is a traveler who decided to tag along with us outside the village. As for Naruto," Kurenai brought out the scroll of the sun goddess' journey and opened it to the first full portrait, "I'm surprised someone who traveled with his mother didn't recognize the family resemblance."

"WHAT!" Issun exclaimed, hurting the ears of Kiba, Akamaru, and Naruto, "There is no way Ammy had a kid, and if she did wouldn't he have been born here instead of where you guys are from?"

"The way Amaterasu-sama said it made it seem like she let her mind leave her body for a while and took a vacation in our village." Hinata said.

"You guy's meet Ammy?"

"Very briefly," Kiba said, "only when Naruto got turned into a wolf, and even then it was more like she had her mind travel to explain everything while her body stayed behind."

"Yeah, I don't believe any of what you three said."

"So then who would you believe?" Kushina asked. Although he could be an irritating, perverted bug, she still missed her friend and hoped that he would travel at least a short ways with the group. She was just glad there was no chance the artist would meet Jiraiya, if the world was introduced to illustrated Icha Icha she knew many men would be in need of blood transfusions.

* * *

Meanwhile in the Elemental Nations, a man with spiky white hair dressed in a mix of a shinobi uniform and kabuki outfit was walking along the road when he sneezed. After wiping his face he smiled as he came up with a brilliant idea, only to become deeply depressed in a few minutes. "No, that won't work," he said aloud, "it would be incredible, but there is no one in the Elemental Nations who could do the art justice."

Out of the bushes from the side of the road a blond….man? Yes a blond man pooped up and said, "Did someone say art? You know, art is a ba…."only to be interrupted by a swift kick from the white haired man. "Wrong kind of art, and what are you doing here? You aren't in the story until at least past the chunin exams."

The blond man rubbed his nose before he started walking back toward Iwa, upset for having to abandon his latest masterpiece for nothing.

* * *

Kushina suddenly shuttered, feeling as if she had unknowingly unleashed a great force upon the world. She was brought back to reality when Issun said, "Well I guess if I heard this from Sakuya I'd have to believe it. I've never known her to lie."

"Well looks like we're going back to Kamiki village." Kurenai said.

"Excuse me, but are you all leaving so soon?" From behind the group walk an old man, wearing an open purple robe and purple shorts, a large gourd was strapped to his back. However, the man's most noticeable feature was his large, red mustache.

Issun answered, "I'm afraid so Dr. Redbeard. Thank you for your hospitality, but there are some things that I need to take care of."

"It is no problem, I am happy to help. Although, if I could ask you for one small favor," the man pulled out a scroll from his sleeve, "we are a growing village, if you find anyone looking for a home, be sure to show them this map."

"No problem pops. Now come on everyone, either Sakuya or one of you have some explaining to do."

* * *

The group of travelers made it back to Kamiki village as quickly as they left, everyone thankful not to have to battle demons before breakfast again. While the last of the group, Kushina and Kurenai, where walking through the pass, Kushina heard something above her. Reacting on instince, the woman cried, "Look out!" before rushing Kurenai and herself out of the way of a falling boulder.

"Ah, now the pass is once more sealed and the village is safe. Another job done by the Great Susano!" Said a balding man wearing a purple fighters gi with a red belt, a golden wooden sword strapped to his back.

Kushina was angry as she yelled out, "Watch were you throw those boulders next time you baka!"

"Who dares to insult the bestest swordsmen in the world!" Susano yelled, before his eyes fell on Naruto. "Oh, hello again my friend, it has been a long time hasn't it? I see you've made some new friends, but what happened to the other pup? You two seemed awfully attached to each other."

Everyone was confused, seeing the situation Issun said, "Hey pops, you sure you saw Naruto? I mean there are plenty of other black dogs in the world."

The man shrugged his shoulders as he said, "I guess your right Issun." He then turned to the rest of the group and said, "I suppose I should apologize for almost squashing some of you. Now if you'll excuse me I need to find my son and get some training in."

As everyone was walking away, Kushina thought, 'Man, Susano and Kushi sure didn't wait long.'

* * *

Once more the group from Konoha was before the great Sakura tree, but were surprised when they saw the sky become dark after passing through the stone gate. From out of thin air Sakuya appeared, "Welcome once more travelers and son of the sun, I see you have picked up a new traveling companion."

"So it's true then?" Issun asked. "This brat really is Ammy's son?"

"It is my little bug, and like his mother he too will go on a journey across the land, helping many in need. He will need someone to record his tale."

"I gotcha babe, I'll tag along again. Who knows, maybe by the end of everything I'll get to see Ammy again." Issun didn't notice Kushina in the back of the group look down, suddenly finding her feet very interesting.

"I'm afraid it is not that simple Issun. While he maybe her son, Naruto is not as strong as Amaterasu and will require help from various partners along the way, not just his teammates."

"Okay Sakuya. Well I guess this is the part where we hit the road. See ya later Sakuya, I'll come back and…"

Before Issun could finish his sentence, a bolt of lightning appeared on the cloudless day. No one was hurt, but the Konohana tree was split in half. Sakuya remained for a brief moment, before she started falling backwards and disappeared.

"Sakuya, Sakuya!" Issun called out. Naruto, meanwhile remembered something similar happening during his mom's journey and quickly used rejuvenation to heal the tree, although it still lacked all of its leaves and flowers. "Whoa, nice thinking there kid. If I still had doubt that you are Ammy's son, they're gone now."

"That's good and all that you believe us, but what do we do now?" Kiba asked.

"It's simple dog breath." Issun responded. "We do as Sakuya said, we find Naruto his first partner."

* * *

**Okay, so not my longest chapter, but also not my shortest, came out to about 13 pages in Word.**

**Let me take this moment to apologize to my readers for such a long wait, I think it's close to three months, and then giving you a short chapter. Like I said at the beginning of the chapter, life's been busy for me. It's taken me a little over two weeks just to write this much. Part of it is school work, but I've also finally gotten to read **_**The Great Zoo of China**_** which has been sitting on my nightstand for months now. It was defiantly worth the wait and I highly recommend it, if you liked **_**Jurassic Park **_**I can guarantee you will love this book. Besides that, I've started watching this new anime called "Is it wrong to try to pick up girls in a dungeon" or something along those lines. It is one of the funniest animes I've watched and has a good amount of action, again I highly recommend it.**

**So since everyone has had to wait so long for such a short update, I'd figure I'd give you a glimpse of my madness. So, now that this story is updated, I'm going to start working on the next chapter of **_**A New Realm**_**, which should hopefully be updated before July. After that, I'm going to hopefully write a (hopefully) short story on another show I recently started watching. Of course, I'm always interested in hearing what my readers have to say, so I'm also going to put a poll up to see what projects people are must excited about. Who knows, your votes might make me change my mind on what gets uploaded first.**

**So, now we have another chapter done, and more questions that need answering, such as…**

**Who will live in Yakushi?**

**Who will be Naruto's first partner? (If you've played the game you already know.)**

**Will the group from Konoha ever get home?**

**All these questions and more will, hopefully, be answered in future chapters. As always, thanks for reading and I hoped you have enjoyed my work.**

**So, after such a long wait, here's acw28 saying, "until next update."**


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